


Life On The Farm

by kamala_khan_for_president



Series: Life On The Farm-Verse [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies), Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: All the guys on team cap are Lila and Cooper's uncles now, Bisexual Kate Bishop, Bisexual Natasha Romanov, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Bisexual Tommy Shepherd, Bruce and Nat spend the first few chapters on a beach holiday, Cassie and Lila are best friends, Civil War Team Captain America, Clint Barton's Farm, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, DC CW references, Deaf Clint Barton, Fluff, Frozen (2013) References, Jewish Wanda Maximoff, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Moana (2016) References, Multi, Pansexual Thor, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Sam Wilson can't do accents, Sam is very passive aggressive, Spider-Man: Homecoming Compliant, Team as Family, The Barton family have unofficially adopted Wanda, There is now a support group for people dating Avengers, Thor is an awkward house guest, Wanda Maximoff Needs a Hug, but now it's getting out of hand, this started out as a few one shots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-09 01:00:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 101,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11658330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kamala_khan_for_president/pseuds/kamala_khan_for_president
Summary: Set after Civil War. Stories about Team Cap (minus Bucky) and friends hiding out on Clint's farm.





	1. The School Run

**Author's Note:**

> I've been writing this story for just over a year now and have only been posting to my Wattpad. I'll upload this here as quick as I can, without dumping it all at once. To help, I'll put the date that each chapter was originally posted at the beginning of each chapter, to help give some semblance of a timeline.
> 
> I also wrote a prequel called How We Got Here about how Steve and Bucky found their way to Wakanda, the prison break, the others hearing about Bucky going back into cryo and arriving at the Barton Farm. As well as this, I wrote a spin-off called The Next Generation that follows the Young Avengers (and other teen heroes to come!) back in New York.
> 
> I'll be uploading both those stories as well as the rest of this shortly, but my Wattpad is kamalaforpresident if anybody wants to read ahead.
> 
> Thank you for reading and I'm always open to any suggestions for new chapters in this story, as well as The Next Generation if anybody wants to send them to me. xx

20/5/16

This couldn’t be happening. Of all the bad things that could happen, this did. Laura was sick. And she couldn’t take the kids to school. Lila sat, swinging her legs back and forth on the porch steps, her Hello Kitty rucksack on her back. Cooper was lying on his stomach on the porch, playing with a couple of plastic dinosaurs. Both seemed unaware of what could be classed as a war council around the kitchen table.

A map of the local area was spread over the table, with the school, police station and any place with a security camera marked on, the car marked by a plastic dinosaur lent to them by Cooper. Team Captain America was sat around the table, coffee mugs in hand, attempting to figure out the best way to get the kids to school without getting arrested, which would be mildly annoying and inconvenient.

“So, if we go past the back of the fire station, we won’t be seen by the ATM cameras” Clint said, ‘driving’ the plastic dinosaur along the map. “Now we only have to decide who’s taking them”

The rest of the team looked at Clint with confusion written all over their faces.

“What?” he asked.

The others shared a look before Steve voiced what they were all thinking.

“Why aren’t you taking them” he asked.

“All of the other parents at school know me. And they also know that I’m a wanted fugitive. Believe me; gossip travels really quick in this small town. And Tilly Brown from Lila’s class’ dad is the sheriff. And Joe Smith from Cooper’s class’ dad is an agent for the CIA. He’s probably waiting to arrest me as it is” Clint said, throwing his arms around as he did so.

Wanda reached over and put her and on Clint’s arm, shaking her head slightly in an attempt to calm him down. He slumped into his chair, sighing. The team sat in silence for a few seconds before Scott broke the silence.

“Well, I have an existing criminal record as it is, so I can’t go” he said, staring down at the mug in his hand.

“I can’t drive” said Wanda.

The rest of the team turned to look at Sam and Steve.  Steve slumped further into his seat, mumbling something uncoherent underneath his breath.

“What was that Steve? I didn’t quite catch it” Sam said, leaning over the table.

“I’ll probably get caught when I get really bad road rage. I’ve been pulled over because of it before” he said as he somehow managed to slump even further into his seat. The others were silent for a few seconds, before they burst out in laughter.

“Okay, okay” Sam managed to get out between his wheezing laughter. “I’ll take the kids, what could go wrong”.

***

This is what could go wrong. He could take the wrong turning one the main road and end up going past the both the police station and early every single security camera in town. It was the radio being on, he knew it. But if he turned off the radio, Lila would start complaining, which made Cooper start yelling.

He couldn’t win. He had a great amount of respect for Laura; she managed to do this every day. But then again, she got to go straight down the main road, no weird back routes for her. But she still had to put up with the children.

He eventually pulled at the school, just as the children were beginning to go into the school. Sam sighed with relief; he had managed to get the children as far as school without being arrested. Now he just had to get home again.

“Oh, Tilly’s dad said he needed to talk to mommy about me going to Tilly’s birthday party at the weekend” Lila said, before sliding out of the car and running off to her friends.

Sam opened his mouth to say something, but Cooper beat him to it.

“Steve said to watch your language in front of the kids” he said before running after his sister.

Sam knew he had three options; he could either drive off now; get arrested or attempt and accent and hope he doesn’t get recognised. He spotted a man in a sheriff’s uniform heading towards the car. Option three it was then. The man tapped on the window and Sam rolled down the window, thankful for his hat and sunglasses.

“I’m just a civilian. I’m just a civilian. I’m just a civilian” he repeated over and over in his head.

“Hi, I’m Tilly’s dad” the man said. A look of confusion spread over his face. “Where’s Laura?”

This was it, now or never.

“Erm, she’s ill. I’m her friend, I said I’d take the kids in today” apparently Sam was French.

The man seemed confused by his accent. Maybe it wasn’t as authentic as he thought it sounded. Never the less, the man continued to talk.

“Oh well, I’ll hopefully see her tomorrow. You know what though; it’s good of you to bring those kids into school for her. I mean it’s not like their dad can, you get what I mean?” he said as he leaned into the car to give Sam and oh-so-friendly jab in the ribs.

Sam grunted as the man continued to jab him in the ribs with his elbow. It took all his willpower to not grab the gun he knew Clint had stashed in the glove box and teach this man a lesson for talking about his friends like that.

After managing to regain his composure, he turned to the man. “No, actually, I don’t know what you mean”. Apparently he was now Spanish. The, who apparently had no respect for personal space, leaned further into the truck, as if he were about to tell state secrets to Sam.

“He was one of those Avengers, but he sided with the cap and now he’s a fugitive, just like the rest of them. I swear, if I meet even one of them, I’m gonna arrest them” he said with a worrying gleam in his eye.

Sam stiffened. “Oh, really. That’s interesting”. Now he was eastern European.

“Yeah, dangerous bunch that lot. Especially that Maximoff girl, Scarlet Witch or whatever they call her. Personally, I think that they should all just be locked and kept where they can’t hurt anyone”

Now Sam really wanted to grab that gun. Nobody insults Wanda and gets away with it on his watch, or anybody else’s for that matter. Over the last year of living in the compound and now living at Clint’s farm, she had become like a little sister to him. He just got a little over protective sometimes.

The man looked as if he was about to continue, but Sam decided that he didn’t want to hear anymore.

“Well would you look at the time?” the now Australian Sam said. Before the man had any chance to reply, Sam rolled up the window and drove away from the school.

***

Later that day, Sam was sent back out to pick the kids up. This time he managed to get to the school without going the wrong way. The kids got into the car and Sam managed to escape without another awkward encounter with the man from earlier. Everything was going well until…

“Hey Sam, could you move your seat up?”


	2. Mistakes Were Made

29/5/16

That was it. She was never leaving her room again. Ever. She couldn’t help but think back over the many mistakes that had been made that day.

***

She’d been out at the shops, which was mistake number one. Leaving the farm was something that people had been avoiding at all costs, not wanting to run into anyone who might arrest them. Especially after Sam’s near miss with the town sheriff.

But, Scott had eaten the last of the mint choc chip ice cream, so she had gone with him to replace it before Lila found out. She would rather face Team Iron Man alone than see Lila without ice cream for after her dinner. That was truly scary.

It was in the shop that they made mistake number two. The majority of the drive there had been spent deciding what their names were. After twenty minutes of Scott coming up with more and more ridiculous names, where the only way they could guarantee being arrested even more would be to turn up in their suits, they eventually settled on Elizabeth and Paul. Everything was going fine in the shop; other than the fact they couldn’t find the ice cream. They split up in an attempt to find the ice cream and that was when Scott messed up. Big time.

“Hey Wanda, I found it” Scott yelled from the other side of the shop.

Well, this wasn’t going to end well. The entire shop froze and everything turned to look at either him or her. Wanda could not see any way of this ending well. She ran through every single possible outcome and plan in her head, making sure that in every scenario they never found the others. She wasn’t letting the rest of the team go down with her because Scott was an idiot. She certainly didn’t want the kids to have to see their dad be dragged out of the house in front of them.

There was only one plan that she could think of where they were going to get out of this with their freedom. And Scott was going to hate her for it. But hey, he was the one that got them into this mess in the first place. In fact, they were only out in the shop in the first place because of him.

But Wanda knew that she had no other option. Putting on her best fake American accent, her fake accents being much better than Sam’s, she braced herself for what she had to do next.

“Paul, what are you talking about? I’m Elizabeth, remember?” she said gently putting her arms out as if she were approaching a wild animal. “Elizabeth, not Wanda”

By now, a crowd had formed and they were all watching them. People in this town really didn’t care about being discrete.

Wanda awkwardly turned and smiled at the crowd. “Don’t mind my uncle; he’s not been the same since the accident. He was in a massive car pile-up a few years ago. Hit his head real hard”. The crowd threw glances at each other, worrying about the fact there was apparently a crazy guy holding a tub of mint choc chip ice cream in the middle of the shop. It was a particularly nosy lady who decided to speak first.

“Well, erm, why did he call you Wanda?” she said cocking her head in a condescending fashion.

“Well, you see, he…” Wanda stumbled over words as she attempted to find an excuse.

“AVENGERS” Scott suddenly screeched. The entire shop turned to stare at Scott, who started to turn an alarming shade of red. “Erm, the avengers, I love the avengers”

Yes. This could work. Wanda clicked her fingers and pointed at Scott as the rest of the plan formed in her head.

“Yeah, when he woke up after the accident, the first thing he saw were the avengers on the TV, won’t talk about anything else. Even thinks I’m Wanda Maximoff. Me. The Scarlet Witch. Can you imagine?” she said through nervous laughter. Nobody else was laughing. “Right?”

The rest of the crowd just awkwardly looked around, almost wishing they were somewhere else.

“You know what, we’re just gonna buy our ice cream and go, that sound okay Uncle Paul?” Wanda said, nodding her head at Scott.

And they got their ice cream and left.

***

Going back home again was probably their third mistake. Apparently, one of the members of the crowd was one of the most gossipy members of the PTA and the whole story was spreading around the rest of the moms like wildfire.

Sam decided to be the one to deal with Scott, dragging him off to one side by his ear. Clint, apparently, had been given the responsibility of dealing with her. Without saying a single word, he directed her towards the kitchen. When they got there, he pulled out a chair for her to sit down, before seating himself at the opposite side of the table. He sighed and leant back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest.

“What were you thinking?” he spat through gritted teeth.

Wanda placed the shopping bag with the carton of ice cream on the table. “That Lila would be upset if she realised that Scott had eaten all the ice cream” she said, resisting the temptation to smirk.

Clint wordlessly took the ice cream and put it in the freezer, before sitting himself back at the table.

“Why didn’t you just tell Laura? She could’ve just gone and got it. Why would you go? It’s crazy dangerous Wanda, especially after that near miss with Sam last week. Are you even listening?”

Wanda snapped her head back up, she hadn’t realised that she’d been staring down at the table. “Erm, yes, sorry”

“Don’t ever do something as stupid as that again”

“Yes Clint”

“Can you imagine what would’ve happened if you’d been caught? You would’ve ended up back on the raft prison”

“Yes Clint”

“I mean seriously Wanda…”

Wanda couldn’t help but let her mind wander. This just reminded her of when she was little, so she knew when to at least pretend to agree with whatever they were saying. She and Pietro kept getting caught playing out in the woods where they weren’t allowed to go. Her parents would sit them both around the dining table and lecture them on how they were never to go play there ever again, no matter how much the other children begged them to. Not that it ever worked. It was thinking about this that caused mistake number four.

“Yes Dad”

Oops. That was not what she meant to say. Definitely not. She hoped that he didn’t hear her.

She awkwardly looked up through her hair, to see if there was any indication that he heard her. Judging by the wide eyes, red cheek and mouth opened in shock, he had heard her. Without saying another word, she got out of her chair, ran up the stairs and locked herself in her room.

***

It was several hours before anyone heard from Wanda. She eventually resurfaced from her room for dinner and wouldn’t make eye contact with anybody. She barely ate anything, just pushed her food around her plate and hid her face behind her hair. Nobody seemed to be able to bring themselves to be the first to speak, except Lila, who clearly had no idea what was going on, was rambling on about her day at school.

The adults were still sat there long after the kids had gone outside to play. Steve was the first to attempt to break the awkward silence.

“So, is this awkward silence anything to do with the ice cream incident earlier?” he asked.

“Erm…no” Clint said, as he made awkward eye contact for a split second with Wanda.

Laura seemed to be the only one who picked up on this. “Are you guys planning on telling us anytime soon” she asked.

“NO” they both yelled before anyone else could ask any more questions. Everyone else in the room shifted awkwardly in their seats.

“I’m going to my room, if nobody minds” Wanda said before ditching her plate in the sink and disappearing upstairs. She didn’t hear the sound of people talking behind her as she left.

***

Wanda was repeatedly hitting her head against the wall when she decided to go and talk to about it to Clint about it. She opened the door and found Clint standing on the other side, his hand positioned where the door knob would be.

“Erm, hi. I was just coming to find you…” she trailed off.

“I was coming to see if you were okay actually. Do you mind?” he asked, gesturing to her room.

“Sure” she said as she stepped back, allowing him into her room. He awkwardly perched on the corner of her bed, fiddling with the corner of a blanket that had been carelessly thrown over her bed. She closed the door behind her and awkwardly stepped into the centre of the room, not really knowing what to do.

“Listen Wanda, about earlier…” he was cut off when she slumped onto the floor, her back against the bed. She buried her head in her hands, resting her forehead against her knees. She heard the creak in the bed as Clint slid off to sit down next to her. He looped his arm around her and pulled her into a hug.

After a few minutes, she lifted her head to look at Clint. He gave her a look of concern. She wiped her hands underneath her eyes, and was surprised when they came back wet. She hadn’t realised she’d been crying.

“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?” he asked whilst rubbing her arm.

“It’ nothing, it’s just when you were telling me of earlier, it just reminded me of when I was little, when Pietro and I were little, and our parents would tell us off for playing in the woods near where we lived. It never worked though, we always went back. I just miss them still” tears were beginning to threaten to spill. “I’m really sorry; I swear I won’t do it again Clint. I didn’t…”

She couldn’t finish her sentence as the tears were already beginning to flow. Clint pulled her into a hug and rocked her as she cried.

“You know” he started. “You could always call me dad if it made it any better”

She didn’t respond, just cried a little less as he held her for a little longer.

***

A few days later, Wanda came into the living room balancing a tray of drinks in her hands. She placed mugs by Clint and Laura and was about to go find the boys when Clint suddenly stopped her.

“Hey Wanda, that’s not my coffee mug, I’ve never seen it before” he said.

“Sure it is” she told him as she slipped back out of the room.

Clint smiled to himself as he took a sip of coffee from his world’s best dad mug.


	3. Invasion Of The PTA Moms

13/7/16

The day had started out like any other for the team, but nobody could’ve anticipated how big a disaster it ended up being.

Like every other day before, the morning had started out with Team Captain America sat around the dining table. Clint was groggily bouncing Nathaniel on his knee, half listening to Lila babble on about her week at school. Wanda’s hair was a knotted mess and she was propping herself up with one hand, the other hand clasped around the coffee mug she was staring into. Sam had fallen asleep on the table, the left side of his face resting in the syrup of his pancakes. Even Steve, the super soldier, was nodding off at the table. Laura was still in bed, a place the rest of the team wanted to be.

The only one who seemed to be even remotely awake was Scott. He was sat at the coffee table in the living room, drawing pictures with crayons with Cooper. All of a sudden he let out a loud laugh. From upstairs, Laura yelled at him to shut up.

“Look,” he said, holding up a badly drawn picture of him in the suit. “I drew me”

Clint leaned over and snatched the picture out of his hands. Turning back, he raised an eyebrow.

“Ant Man by Ant Man?” he asked.

Scott grinned and nodded enthusiastically before going back to drawing more pictures of superheroes and telling Cooper the long story of how he and his friends broke into Pym Technologies.

Clint rolled his eyes and continued to bounce Nathaniel on his knee. From next to him, Sam rolled over in his sleep and crashed onto the floor, taking the plate of pancakes with him. He drowsily opened his eyes, blinking away the syrup.

“What year is it?” he asked.

***

Later that day, when everyone had woken up, things seemed to be going Team Cap’s way for once. Naturally, that didn’t last long. Scott was still drawing with Cooper, Lila was sat playing with her dolls by the window, Nathaniel had gone upstairs for his nap and the rest of the adults were watching TV.

All of a sudden, Lila let out an excited gasp.

“Mommy, Mommy, look,” she shouted as she jumped up and down. Her arm was waving wildly as she pointed out the window. Outside, a large green family car pulled up at the end of the dirt track. A blonde woman in her mid-thirties climbed out of the driver’s seat, quickly followed by twin strawberry blonde girls about the same age as Lila from the back. Laura sucked in her breath and exchanged a worried look with Clint.

“Who are they?” Sam asked.

“That’s Tina Smith. She’s the head of the PTA and the town gossip,” Laura replied. “If she even begins to suspect that you lot are here, it will be on the PTA Facebook group by the end of the day and then that’s it. They’ll send people here for you”

Wanda stiffened at the thought of going back to the raft prison. Without meaning to, her hands crept up to her neck to rub the scars left by the burning of the electric collar. Clint, who was stood next to her, noticed and rubbed her back reassuringly.

“Can I go out and play with Casey and Lucy? Can I? Please Mommy?” Lila begged.

Clint bent down so he was eye level with his daughter. He clutched her arms and looked her in the eye.

“Listen, you can go outside and play with your friends, but you can’t tell them or anyone else that we’re here,” he said, nodding his head towards Wanda and the others. “Just like at school, okay?”

“I promise,” she said. Clint let go of her arms and she looked up to her mother, asking for her approval. Laura nodded at the little girl, and she went flying out the door towards her friends.

“I’m going to see what she wants,” Laura said. She pointed to Team Captain America. “You lot are going to hide upstairs. Cooper, you’re with me, and the same goes to you, don’t tell anyone who’s here”

And with that, she walked out the door to greet Tina, with Cooper following behind her.

“Best we make ourselves scarce,” Sam said and Team Cap made their way up the stairs.

***

“Wanda’s room will be the best to hide in,” Clint said. “I know it’s small, but the Lila and her friends might want to come and play with her toy ponies in hers, Nathaniel is asleep in his and Cooper’s and the other two have bay windows overlooking the front”

The others nodded, trusting Clint’s judgement on where would be best to hide. Wanda squeezed through the boys from the back of the crowd.

“Okay, just give me a sec”

She slipped down the hall and opened her door long enough for her to slip into her room before closing it again. The rest of the team gave each other confused looks as the sounds of cupboard doors and draws being opened and closed came from the room, as well as the creak of the bathroom door being moved. The door reopened with Wanda stood there.

“Welcome,” she said, as she threw the door the rest of the way open, inviting them inside.

The men slipped inside the room, looking around for any indication of what the noise was. Wanda noticed this and decided to put them out of their misery.

“I had a load of clean clothes on the sofa that I hadn’t put away, that’s what I was doing. And I had to put some stuff away in the bathroom,” she said.

“What kind of stuff?” Steve asked.

“Girl stuff,” Wanda replied, shifting uncomfortably. Steve turned bright red.

Scott settled himself down on the left hand side of the two-person sofa.

“Hey tic-tac,” Sam said. “I like the left side”

Scott shuffled over and Sam sat down next to him. Wanda sat down on one side of her bed, pulling her knees up to her chest. She wrapped one arm round her legs; the other went back to rubbing the scars on her neck. Clint sat down next to her and looped his arm around her. She leaned into his side and he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. A small smile graced her lips. Steve looked around the room for somewhere to sit, before settling on the floor.

“So,” he said awkwardly. “Now what do we do?”

“I guess we just wait it out,” Wanda replied.

***

One awkward silence filled half an hour later, there was a knock at the door. Steve jumped up from where he was sat leaning against the door and cracked it open just enough to see who was on the other side. Seconds later, he opened the door the rest of the way open, allowing Laura into the room. Her eyes wondered around the room, looking at everyone before they settled on Clint, who still had his arm round Wanda.

“The venue they normally use for the annual PTA summer picnic has fallen through at the last minute. So, naturally they came here, we do have the biggest garden, we live on a farm,” Laura aid with a sigh. “The rest of the PTA and their kids are going to be arriving soon. It’s likely they’ll be here for a few hours and I can’t get them to leave without looking suspicious”

“So, what do you want us to do?” Scott asked.

“Just hide in here, don’t leave the room. I’ll play some music outside to cover up you lot talking so nobody knows you’re here, but if you hear anyone come upstairs, don’t move a muscle. I’d better get going back down before anyone gets suspicious”

Laura slipped back out the door, leaving Team Captain America on their own again.

“So, now we wait,” Sam said.

Wanda reached under her bed and pulled out a large metal tin. She pulled the lid off and stuck her hand inside and pulled out a few chocolate chip cookies. Clint stared at her.

“What?” she said. “Whenever I bake, Sam steals most of it before I get the chance to eat any. So, I’ve taken to baking extra and hiding some”

“Not bad Maximoff,” Sam said, as he took a cookie from her hand. “Not bad”  


***

Two hours and a ton of cookies later, Team Cap appeared to have shaken off their earlier panic and had relaxed a bit. Steve and Sam were throwing a ball back and forth between the two of them and Scott was reading a magazine. Clint and Wanda were sat opposite each other on her bed with a game of chess placed between them.

Everything was calm and quiet, until Scott snapped his head up, a horrified look on his face.

“The pictures,” he muttered.

“What?” Clint asked.

“The pictures I drew with the kids,” Scott replied. “I left them downstairs”  
“I don’t see what’s so bad about that”

“I’ve signed them all by Ant Man. Somebody will know we’re here. Oh, I’ve messed up”

“No,” Wanda said. “They can’t find out we’re here. We can’t go back to that place. We can’t”

She covered her mouth with one hand, while the other went to the back of her neck, rubbing the scars and burn marks. Clint knocked the chess board off the bed and leaned over to pull her close, wrapping her arms around her as she tried not to cry. Steve got up from where he was sat on the floor and walked over to where they were sat. He placed a hand on Wanda’s shoulder. She looked up at him, her face half obscured by her hair.

“You’re not going back there. I won’t let them take you. None of us will. Especially this idiot,” Steve said, pointing his thumb towards Clint, who acted mock offended.

Wanda wiped away the tears from her eyes.

“So, what’s the plan?”

***

The plan was simple enough. Wanda and Scott would sneak downstairs and Wanda would use her powers to move the drawings towards her, while Scott acted as a lookout. Thankfully, the blinds on the door had been drawn, so nobody would see them. It was all going perfectly fine, the drawings were almost at the edge of the table, when suddenly, Scott tapped her on the shoulder.

“Someone’s coming,” he said as he pointed towards the door. Sure enough, Wanda looked over to the door to see the silhouettes of two people approaching the door. The pair exchanged a frightened glance.

“Hide,” Wanda whispered.

Scott dived over the bannisters and slid into the cupboard under the stairs. Wanda ran across the living room, ducking as she sped past the window and leapt over the sofa and crashed to the floor, awkwardly lying squashed between the sofa and the wall, seconds before the door opened.

“All I’m saying is that if he really cared about you and the kids, he never would’ve gone and picked a fight with Tony Stark” came a voice from the door. Wanda could hear two pairs of feet making their way across the creaking floor boards towards the kitchen.

“Well, I’m sure his heart was in the right place,” replied Laura. Wanda couldn’t see her, but she knew that she was talking through gritted teeth. She smirked to herself. Clint had gotten involved because of her and Laura seemed determined to defend that.

"Well," said the first voice. "I suppose you do know him better than I do"

Wanda listened to the sound of the footsteps retreating across the floor. This was it, they were going back outside and then Wanda would be free. But then, the footsteps stopped next to the sofa.

"Oh no," Wanda muttered.

She heard the sofa sigh as the two women sat down on it. From where she was hidden, she could hear the rest of their conversation. 

“Yes, I do know my own husband better than you do Stephanie; just like I’m sure you understand the reasons why your husband streaked down main street just after the school let out,” Laura said.

“Actually,” the woman now dubbed Stephanie replied. “Terrance is my boyfriend, not my husband”. Stephanie said it as if it completely justified the entire situation, which, in Wanda’s opinion, didn’t.

Wanda heard the sofa creak some more, indicating that the women were settling further into the seat, meaning that they were going to be there a while. She knew that there was nothing she could do without being caught, and Scott wouldn’t be able to get back upstairs without being seen. In other words: she was stuck.

 _It’s at times like this I really wish I was telepathic_ Wanda thought.

 _Wanda_ Clint’s voiced echoed through her head. _You are telepathic._

 _Oh yeah._ She could practically see him rolling her eyes at her. _We have a bit of a problem. I’m ever so slightly stuck behind the sofa and Laura and her friend Stephanie, who hates you by the way, are on the sofa talking. Also, Scott is pretending to be Harry Potter, and by that I mean he is hiding in the cupboard under the stairs._

_And how on earth did you get yourself into that situation young lady?_

Wanda fought the urge to sigh.

_By saving us all from getting arrested… and enough with the parenting talk_

_No, you are my daughter now, which means you now have to put up with the parenting talk. Would you like a distraction?_

Wanda smiled to herself. She had to admit, she missed somebody looking out for her the same way he did.

_That would be brilliant, thanks._

_One distraction coming right up._

From outside, Wanda heard the sound of a glass shattering and the startled screeches of a few children. Laura and Stephanie raced outside to check on their kids and find out what was going on. Wanda took her chance. She crept out from behind the sofa and ran to the cupboard under the stairs. She yanked the door open and grabbed Scott by the arm, and began to half drag him up the stairs, ignoring the sounds of his protests and pleas for her not to arrest him. She didn’t stop running until the two of them were safely inside her room.

Steve and Sam looked at her and Scott in confusion, whilst Clint just gave her a nervous smile.

“Look what I got,” she said, as she reached out her hand, offering a few sheets of crumpled paper she’d grabbed off the coffee table on the way out of the living room.

Steve leaned over and took the papers out of her hand. He looked down at them for a moment before smiling.

“These are some pretty good pictures Ant Man”

***

“So, what on earth happened downstairs?” Steve asked.

Wanda quickly explained to the rest of the team what had happened downstairs. Clint snickered at Laura’s comment about Stephanie’s boyfriend.

“But I don’t know what that noise was,” she finished.

“That was my distraction. I used an elastic band to fire a marble at one of the windows of the barn, remind me to fix that later. You’re welcome by the way”

Wanda sped across the room and hugged Clint tightly and he was quick to hug her back.

“Thanks dad,” she whispered.

***

It was later that evening, once the PTA had left, and everyone was sat round the dining table for tea, when Laura brought up the subject of the broken window.

“Seriously, stop laughing you lot, what happened?” she asked.

Clint grinned at her. “I broke it”

“Why?”

“Oh, he needed to make a distraction,” Sam said.

“Why did he need to make a distraction?”

“So Wanda and Scott could escape from downstairs,” said Steve.

“They were downstairs!”

“Yeah, I was hiding behind the sofa and Scott was in the cupboard under the stairs,” Wanda said, through her laughter.

“Why were you two there in the first place?”

“I left my signed self-portrait in crayon on paper on the coffee table,” Scott said.

Laura sighed. “Superheroes: you can’t take them anywhere, not even your own home”


	4. Tea With The Fugitives

23/7/16

Clint had figured from the day they arrived at his farmhouse that Natasha knew where he went. She would’ve guessed that he would make sure that Wanda was with him and that if those two stuck together, then the rest of the team would be with them as well. He guessed Tony might have known where they were as well.

But, nobody had come for them yet. Whether that was because neither of them wanted to, or Natasha wouldn’t let Tony disrupt Laura and the kids. Either way, he was glad that he was able to be with his family despite everything that had happened, and that the rest of the team seemed to be able to relax, especially Wanda.

It wasn’t until they had been hiding out for two months that his suspicions were confirmed.

***

It was a late Sunday afternoon when it happened. It had been a quiet and rather uneventful week, and by that, it meant that nobody had almost gotten arrested in some spectacular fashion. This, of course, meant that the weekly Team Captain America quota of weird had nowhere near been filled. And it was about to be.

Laura and the kids were baking cookies in the kitchen to have after tea. Well, Laura was baking and Cooper was helping. Lila was sat on the kitchen counter next to Nathaniel, who was sat in his high chair. She was snacking on pilfered chocolate chips and blabbering on about a pony book she’d been reading.

In the living room, the team had settled themselves in front of the TV. Sam, Scott and Sam were sat on one sofa with a large bowl of popcorn sat between them. Clint and Wanda were sat on the smaller sofa. Clint had his arm looped around Wanda, who had fallen asleep nestled into his side. It wasn’t uncommon for this to happen, for her to doze off during the day when she was around the others. She seemed to be exhausted all the time, barely ever sleeping at night. Even before the raft prison, it was hard for her to get a good night’s sleep, her dreams plagued with visions of her parents and brother’s deaths. On the worst nights, others were woken up when their own dreams were suddenly ripped away and replaced by horrid visions of what she saw in her sleep, her powers throwing them into the minds of the others.

Somehow, Clint had managed to convince the others to watch Arrow. When he first suggested it to them, he had received a few weird looks. After all, he was already superhero with a bow and arrow, why would he need to watch a show about another. But, eventually, they all caved, and all ended up being fans.

They were midway through the season four finale when they heard the sound of the back-door creak open and a pair of footsteps in high heels clicking across the tiled floor.

“Hey Laura, hey kids,” came the familiar voice of the Russian assassin.

The footsteps continued across the floor until they reached the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. Natasha sighed and leaned on the side of the door frame, her arms crossing over her chest. Her hair was shorter than when they’d last seen her and was a much redder shade. It was almost exactly like what it was when they fought Ultron. She was dressed in all black, and mainly leather, as would be expected from her. From across the room, Clint could see the shape of the small arrow pendant that he’d gotten her for Christmas the same year of the Battle of New York hanging around her neck. Over her shoulder, she was carrying a duffel bag.

“Hey fugitives I’m meant to be arresting on sight, how’s everyone?” she asked with a small smirk on her lips.

Clint made a fake gasping sound. He threw his free arm up to his chest in ‘shock’.

“You know where we are!” he whisper-yelled, careful not to disturb Wanda. “Are people coming to arrest us?”

Natasha glared at him, before walking over to his side of the room and playfully shoving him in the arm. She looked over his shoulder at Wanda and gave him a questioning look.

“Best friend or not, disturb my daughter and I will end you Romanoff,” he said.

If Natasha was at all surprised by Clint calling Wanda his daughter, she didn’t show it. She merely shrugged before making herself at home on one of the kids’ bean bags next to the TV, which she promptly turning it off, midway through Oliver Queen’s final fight with Damien Darhk, who Steve thought looked suspiciously like one of the Howling Commandos.

“No!” the boys all cried out, jumping up in their seats, sending pieces of popcorn everywhere. Clint lobbed the TV remote at them, somehow managing to nail each of them in the head. When they turned to glare at him, he nodded down at Wanda.

The girl was beginning to stir in her sleep; her face becoming scared and small balls of red were starting to form on her fingertips. She was muttering in her sleep and although nobody in the room spoke Sokovian, they could tell enough from her tone. She was frightened, she was dreaming of the Raft Prison.

Clint shook her gently until her eyes fluttered open. She took a sharp intake of breath and clung onto the fabric of his shirt for support. In a panic, her eyes darted around the room, before she realised that she was at the farmhouse. Her breathing began to slow down, put her grip on Clint’s shirt didn’t begin to loosen until Clint pulled her in closer, shifting to wrap both arms around her. Slowly, she began to sit herself up, her eyes locking on the new visitor.

“Boys,” Natasha said. “What do you say to Wanda?”

The boys muttered a small chorus of sheepish sorrys, much to Natasha’s amusement. It was nice to see that they still respected her authority.

***

They made polite small talk for a while, mainly consisting of the stories where they almost got caught and arrested in a weird and spectacular fashion. Eventually, Lila and Cooper came crashing into the room, both carrying plates of chocolate chip cookies. They both set them down on the coffee table before they both tackled Auntie Nat with hugs, landing on the bean bags next to her. Laura came in after, placing Nathaniel on the floor next to the bean bags where he could play with his toys. She slipped back out the room, but quickly reappeared with a tray filled with mugs of tea. The adults all reached over and grabbed their respective mugs. Natasha smirked when she saw Clint’s new mug.

“Nice mug,” she said.

“Thanks,” he replied. “It was a gift”

He and Wanda both shuffled up, making room for Laura on the sofa, the three of them sitting so Wanda was nestled between the Clint and Laura.

It was Lila who was the first one to bring up what everyone, but Nathaniel, was thinking.

“Why do you have your bag Auntie Nat?” she asked innocently.

Clint sighed. Cooper was older, so it was easier to explain to him what had happened, but Lila still didn’t really understand.

“That means she’s going away on a mission, like she used to do with me and the other Avengers, but I’m not going this time. Neither is Wanda; or any of those three idiots over there,” he explained calmly, receiving glares when he called Sam, Steve and Scott idiots.

“Actually,” Natasha said before Lila had the chance to say anything. “I’m not going on a mission. Other than Tony, nobody knows I’ve even left the compound. Well, they’ve probably noticed my absence by now, considering I left at three in the morning”

A stunned silence fell over the room. Nobody knew what to say to that. It appeared they had become home to yet another fugitive.

Steve was the first one to talk.

“Why?” he asked her. “You seemed to be behind the Accords, why the sudden change of heart?”

“You were right,” she said with a sigh. “The Accords are stopping us from going where we’re needed. Actually, they’re stopping us from going anywhere, the panel hasn’t approved of a single mission yet. We’ve been near enough stuck in the compound for two months, which believe me, is pretty depressing”

“Where are you going?” Laura asked. “Or do you need to stay here? We’re pretty much full at the moment, but I think there’s a camp bed up in the attic, we can get that down and you can share a room with Wan-”

“It’s okay,” Natasha said, cutting off Laura. “I don’t need to stay here, I’m just dropping by. I’m meeting a contact a few miles away in a couple of hours. He’ll have at the border by tomorrow, where another contact will take me wherever I need to go”

“So, what? You’re going on holiday?” Sam asked with a smirk.

Natasha smiled at him. “Something like that, there’s just one thing I need to take care of first”. She looked at the watch she had on her wrist, the logo of Stark Industries shining in the light. Her eyebrows furrowed and she let out an annoyed sigh.

“Is that the time already? I’ve got to get going or I’ll lose my contact” she said as she got to her feet and grabbed her duffel, much to the protests of Lila and Cooper. She dashed over to the smaller sofa and engulfed everyone on it in a hug.

“Bye Scott, bye Sam, bye Specimen,” she yelled over her shoulder as she left. “Oh, and keep an eye on the mail”

***

It was a few days later that the first letter arrived. Laura had picked up the mail from the box at the end of the drive on her way back from dropping the kids off a school, without Sam though; they were hoping to avoid a repeat of that incident. The letter was addressed to her, but they recognised Tony’s handwriting immediately.

Team Captain America sat around the table and stared at the letter in front of them.

_Dear Steve, Clint, Sam, Wanda and Scott,_

_Sorry that I kinda started a Civil War and now you’re all fugitives. My bad. Nat said she’s leaving, but you probably already knew that. I’m guessing she’s already been there. I know Barnes isn’t with you, so don’t worry, there’s no reason for me to come for you, and nobody else even knows about the farm, so relax. You’re safe. I guess I’ll see you in 2018, we appear to be averaging at least one near-apocalyptic event every three years right now, so see you then._

_Tony._

_P.S. the fact this was written with Nat’s gun pointed at my head until “said sorry” does not take away any of the meaning in those words._

Somehow they knew he was telling the truth. They were safe.

***

Nearly two weeks later, the second one arrived, again addressed to Laura. It was Saturday and she’d picked up the mail on the way back from an emergency trip to the shops to buy more syrup for the pancakes- superheroes, after all, have large appetites. She opened the envelope and pulled out a postcard. It was a pretty generic one, a sunset over a beautiful beach, in Fiji according to the card. But she was confused, why did she put it in an envelope? Unless, there was something else in there.

She looked inside, and saw a Polaroid photo tucked inside. She pulled it out and gasped. Everyone at the table looked up to see what it was. she turned the photo around for everyone else to see.

“Huh,” Clint said. “She actually did it”

He smiled to himself as he looked at the photo. It was of two people grinning at the camera, Natasha’s arms wrapped around Bruce’s waist.


	5. They've Done What?

30/7/16

For once, the craziness didn’t start at the farm. Instead, it started on Asgard.

It was time for breakfast in the palace, which was Asgardian for the first giant feast of the day. Sat around the table were the people you would normally expect to see, Odin, Sif, the Warriors Three and Thor, as well as some faces that were not normally present on Asgard. Jane was staying with Thor at that time, studying Asgardian science and comparing it with Midgardian science. This, of course, meant she needed her fellow scientist Erik and her intern Darcy, who needed her intern Ian. Odin still couldn’t understand why his son cared so much for these mortals, or any of the others, especially his fellow Avengers.

That’s why he’d been interrupting Heimdall’s messages to Thor.

Those messages told of a dispute between the Avengers, a civil war if you must. He knew that Thor would want to get involved, pick a side even and join the fight. And he knew that couldn’t let him do that. After all, he was a warrior of Asgard, he did not belong on Midgard, helping to settle some petty mortal dispute over some pieces of paper. That’s why he’d allowed the other mortals to stay for so long, to keep him distracted and away from a fight that Odin thought he did not belong in.

However, it was one morning, Heimdall decided that the only reason Thor had not been to him about what happened to the Avengers was because somehow, he wasn’t getting the messages. So, he went to Thor to let him know in person.

“They’ve done what?” Thor bellowed as he leapt to his feet, knocking the table over as he went. Thankfully, it landed on the Asgardians, who could take the weight of such a large table, and not the mortals.

“Thor,” Odin said, rising from his chair with as much dignity as possible, which was hard with half of breakfast thrown all over him. “Come with me, we shall speak of this elsewhere. You come too, Heimdall”

And with that, the three men left the room.

***

“How could you keep this from me?” Thor asked as he paced the room, not even looking at his father. Heimdall remained stood in the corner, feeling rather awkward, not that he’d ever voice those thoughts.

“I kept this from you for your own good. Even now, you still run into battle without really thinking it through. It could’ve only ended in disaster. Even without your presence, one of the mortals became seriously, almost fatally, injured. Throw your power into that and what the consequences have been?” Odin replied.

Thor stopped his pacing, still deep in thought. After a few moments of silence, he turned to look at Heimdall.

“What of the others, where are they now?” he asked.

“Stark, Rhodes and Vision remain at the compound. Captain Roger and his team are in the farmhouse you visited last summer. The last I saw of Romanoff, she was on the move,” he said.

“I must go to them, at once. Heimdall, to the Bifrost,” he said before leaving the room, Heimdall moving swiftly behind him.

Odin sighed and sat down in a nearby seat. He placed his elbows on his lap and rested his head in his hands. It appeared, no matter how much he tried to change it, his son’s life was now completely intertwined with those of the mortals’.

***

Back in the hall where they had been dining earlier, Darcy was looking out of the window, when something caught her eye.

“Erm, guys?” she asked, pointing out the window. “What’s happening over there?”

Everyone else looked out the window to where Darcy was pointing towards the Bifrost, which appeared to be in use.

“Somebody is leaving Asgard for one of the other realms” Sif replied.

“But who, and where are they going?” Jane asked.

“It’s Thor”

Everyone turned to see Odin return to the room and join them by the window.

“He has gone to Midgard to check on the other Avengers. It appears that the man of iron and his patriotic captain went to war, both adopting insect men as their children”

Everyone stared at Odin in stunned silence for a few seconds before turning to look back out the window, watching as Thor left.

***

When Thor arrived outside the farmhouse, the only person to see his arrival was Lila. She was out in the field, running around with the newly acquired one eyed family dog named Lucky. She was dashing through the long grass, almost as tall as her, small bits getting caught up in her pigtails. Thor landed a few feet in front of her, the light from the Bifrost narrowly missing her and Lucky.

Naturally she screamed. Before Thor had the chance to reassure the young girl that he meant her no harm, he was suddenly thrown into the side of a tree by glowing tendrils of scarlet. He looked up and couldn’t help but smile at his assailant.

Wanda Maximoff floated to the ground, the balls of scarlet that had propelled her through the air diminishing as she landed. He was impressed; it wasn’t often that he came across someone as powerful as her, someone who could easily defeat and Asgardian such as him. Twice.

However, his smile quickly went when he saw the state of the young girl. She had noticeable dark shadows underneath her eyes; clearly something had happened in the civil war that kept her up at night. And when she moved, her hair slipped away from her neck to reveal burn and scar marks, like someone had fired small bolts of lightning at her.

A look a recognition washed over her face and she turned over her shoulder to look speak to someone. Behind her, Thor could hear the grass rustling as others made their way over to them, but from his position on the floor, he couldn’t see them.

“Dad, we’ve got a visitor” she said.

Within seconds, Clint Barton appeared by her side, bow in hand. He dropped the bow upon realising that it was only Thor. Lila ran towards him and he grabbed her and held her up by his side with one arm, the other slipping around Wanda’s waist. Seconds later, Steve, Scott and a man Thor had never seen before appeared next to them. Thor stood up from down on the ground.

“Heimdall told what happened between you and the other Avengers,” he said. “I only have one question”

“Sure, fire away,” said Steve, who seemed quite shocked to see one of his old teammates. Thor turned to look at Wanda and Clint.

“Did she just call you ‘Dad’?”

***

A couple of hours, many stories and several, thankfully unbroken, mugs of tea later, Thor felt like he finally understood what had happened whilst he’d been gone. Well, some of it at least.

“What of the others?” Thor asked. “Where are they? What happened to them?”

“Tony is still at the compound with Rhodey and Vision, they’re all that’s left of the Avengers now. Natasha left the compound, realised that she was wrong about the accords. She dropped by here on her way. We got this in the mail a couple of weeks ago” Clint said, as he stood up and walked over to the mantelpiece, picked up the photo of Natasha and Bruce and handed it to Thor.

Thor smiled when he saw the picture of Natasha and Bruce grinning up at him.

“She found Banner. I am happy for the both of them; they both have found happiness and peace at long last. And with each other it seems,” he said as he handed the photo back to Clint. “And as for the rest of you; are you well? I know personally how hard it can be to leave the world you know and come to something so different. So, normal”

The others stopped for a second to think, as, being honest, they didn’t really know. What Thor said was true. The first few days living on the farm had been weird, especially for Sam, who couldn’t believe that one of his team mates had a secret family hidden away on some farmhouse. Steve and Wanda already knew about Laura and the kids, and as for Scott, he was still fanboying over the Avengers that were on the team. Clint had settled back in right away, after all, this was his home. He was happy to be back with his wife and children. Steve still took to waking up early and having a long morning run that consisted of him running past the others and yelling “on your left”.

Wanda was different. The way she’d been treated at the raft prison was not something that she could easily bounce back from. The scars on her neck were proof of that. The first few days she had done nothing but curl up on her side on her bed in her rooms, leaving all the meals brought to her room untouched. It was almost a week before she even spoke to Clint. But after time, she began to come out of her shell. Eventually, she was spending most of her time downstairs with everyone else and seemed to be back to normal, almost as if nothing had happened. But what happened at nights told a different story.

Nobody knew what to say, but eventually Wanda spoke first.

“Things are good,” she said. “Sure, we almost get arrested in increasingly weird and spectacular ways every other day, but this place, it’s… it’s become like home to us. Well, it was already home for one of us, but you get my point”

The others nodded in agreement at what she said, the farmhouse had become home to everyone. The sense of normality was infectious and had gotten to them all. Thor smiled; it was good to see his teammates relaxed and happy.

“Should I go and see them, the others?” Thor said.

“Natasha and Bruce… yeah, I guess you could go see them, I don’t see why you couldn’t. Tony and the others at the compound…” Clint trailed off.

“I would highly recommend you don’t go there,” Steve cut in. “They’ll try and get you to sign the accords, not recommended by the way, and if you don’t, they have you branded as a fugitive, a criminal, just like us”

Thor nodded. He understood; it would be stupid to go to the compound at a time like this; it couldn’t make anything better, only worse.

“I won’t go to the compound then, but I shall go to see Natasha and Bruce, where did you say they’d gone again?” Thor asked.

“Fiji,” said Sam. “Sounds pretty nice if you ask me- not that I don’t appreciate the fact that you guys have let us hide out here Mr and Mrs Barton,” he gushed, desperate to not be a homeless fugitive.

Laura rolled her eyes at him, this being just another in a long and ever growing line of incidents that proved why you can’t take superheroes anywhere, not even your own home.

“I guess I must be going now,” Thor said as he rose to his feet. “I shall go see Romanoff and Banner before I return to Asgard”

And with that, we walked out the door and flew off.

***

Thor landed amongst the trees on the shoreline of a beautiful white sanded beach in Fiji. Judging by the lack of commotion around him, his arrival had gone unnoticed. He looked around for any signs of his two fellow Avengers, but saw nothing. But, just as he was about to leave, he heard the sound of someone splashing about in the water. He peered through the trees, careful to remain unseen by anyone. Out in the clear blue waters, Thor could see two people splashing water at each other and he could hear the sounds of their laughter. It seemed such and unusual sight to him, rarely did he ever see Natasha looking so at peace, Bruce as well. He decided to leave without making his presence known to the two of them, leaving them to enjoy this paradise together and alone.

***

It had been many hours since Thor had left, and Jane was beginning to get worried. What if something had happened to him? What if the UN had gotten hold of him and forced him to sign? She hadn’t been able to concentrate all afternoon and spent the entire time pacing up and down various halls in the palace, no amount of reassurance from anyone seemed to be able to settle her down.

Eventually, he returned. To say Jane was relived, was a bit of an understatement, she couldn’t be happier that he was okay.

“Did you find them? The Avengers? Are they all okay?” she demanded.

Thor smiled.

“For now, they are split, some remain at the compound, most hidden in a safe house and two more hiding out of the country, but, I think they are okay,” he said with a smile, knowing fully well that he was going to be in trouble later for disappearing without a warning, but for now, he took comfort in the fact that the friends that he’d been able to see were happy.


	6. Little Notes

4/8/16

It had only been a few days since Team Captain America first moved into Clint’s farmhouse that it began. At first it was just the one. A small yellow post it note was left stuck next to the light switch in the room Sam had ended up having to share with Scott and Steve. On the post it note somebody had drawn a small speech bubble and written inside “I do love it when people turn me off and help save electricity”. Steve instantly knew whose handwriting it was. It was Sam’s. He thought nothing of it at the time, expecting nothing else to come of it.

He was very wrong.

***

The next person to notice the post it notes appearing was Scott. Since the day that they had arrived on the farm, it had been quite apparent that Sam was a little territorial over which parts of the room that he shared with Scott and Steve were his, and that nobody should dare to even think about crossing into his side. His side was the far left of the room, carefully marked out with a thin line of coloured tape running across the room, separating Scott’s single bed from the old set of bunk beds that Sam shared with Steve. It even went as far as separating the wardrobe and chest of draws with the tape.

By complete accident, one of Scott’s t-shirts that he’d left on the floor after he’d gotten ready for bed (he was going to pick it up in the morning, he really was, really) and that was all it took to set off Sam. Scott thought he’d heard something in the night, a rustling noise in the room, though he quickly dismissed it. When Scott awoke, he soon saw what the noise had been in the night. It had been Sam. Of course it had been him, who else could it have been? The t-shirt was gone from the floor and all along the coloured tape border line were post it notes. On each of them, there were two arrows, pointing either way over the border line. The arrow pointing to the left was labelled with “Sam’s side” and the arrow pointing to the right was labelled with “Scott’s side”.

Scott just sighed. At least Sam was just passive aggressive about what was his. They others in the prison hadn’t really gone with the passive part only the aggressive. It wasn’t that much of a problem, besides, it couldn’t get much worse.

He was very wrong.

***

Wanda was the next victim of the passive aggressive natures of Sam. She had just been baking another batch of cookies and had gone to put some of them in the fridge. When she opened the door, she saw that a load of the food had been labelled with post it notes that had “Sam’s food, don’t touch or you’re dead” written on them, along with pictures of stick figures with wings killing other stick figures. There were four other stick figures over all: one had a small circular shield; one with a bow and arrow; one that was really small; and one that had weird little lines around its hands. Wanda guessed that was her and the lines were meant to the red tendrils of magic.

She shrugged. She admitted that it was a bit ironic that he was the one leaving notes about not stealing food, considering she had to hide half of her baking -in a new safe spot now- from him, as he was always stealing it. She thought nothing else of it as she went upstairs to hide the rest of her food from him, thinking that was the last of the passive aggressive notes.

Little did she know how wrong she was.

***

It was Laura who noticed next. Scott had obviously done something earlier that day to annoy him, and his petty form of revenge was quite clear to see. It just so happened to be Sam’s turn to do the washing, and she walked past the baskets that were ready to go upstairs when she saw what he had done. All of Sam’s clothes, along with hers, Clint’s, Steve’s, Wanda’s, Cooper’s, Lila’s and even little Nathaniel’s were perfectly folded into neat little piles. Scott’s, on the other hand, were left in a crumpled pile on the floor next the baskets.

Laura just rolled her eyes. This was just another reason you couldn’t take superheroes anywhere, not even your own home. But she was certain it would be fine. Sure, Sam was being pretty passive aggressive now, but it would blow over sooner or later.

Only it didn’t.

***

Even Lila and Cooper began to notice how passive aggressive Sam could be. In fact, had he been a little older, Nathaniel probably would’ve noticed too. Sam always seemed to be acting really weird around Scott or ‘Tic-Tac’ as Sam kept calling him. It was always little things as well.

 Lila was telling her brothers, not that Nathaniel really understood what she was saying, about one of the weird passive aggressive things that she’d seen Sam do.

“And then he stood up and Scott said ‘while you’re up’ and guess what Sam did,” she said.

“What?” asked Cooper.

“He sat back down,” she exclaimed while giggling.

“That’s nothing,” he said. “The other day, I saw Scott get a drink, and Sam took the glass out of his hand and drank it while he stared right at him and when he was done, he gave the glass back to Scott and walked off without saying anything”

“Whatever,” Lila said with her huff, crossing her arms across her chest. “My story’s funnier than yours”

“No it’s not” Cooper replied with a teasing voice.

The two became locked in an intense glare off for a few seconds.

“DAD,” they both screamed at the same time, racing each other out of the room to get their Dad’s opinion on which story was funnier.

***

Clint finished listening to his children’s stories with a bemused look on his face. The two had sat themselves on either side of him at the dinner table where he was already sat with Laura and Wanda. When they’d done, he turned to the others confused.

“Have you two noticed anything like this as well?” he asked them. “Because that doesn’t really sound like Sam, to act all passive aggressive like that”

Wanda choked on her drink. Laura had to stifle a laugh at her husband’s comment.

“Oh this is like Nat and Bruce all over again,” Laura eventually managed to get out. “You know, for someone who has such good eyesight, you can be so blind. He’s been acting really passive aggressive all week. Scott is the main victim, but it’s not limited to just him”

“Yeah,” Wanda added. “There are sticky notes in the fridge that have pictures of him killing us for taking his food. And do you know what the worst part is? They’re not even that good. Just stick figures”

Clint went over to the fridge and opened it up. A look of confusion immediately washed over his face. He reached in and pulled out one of the post it notes. He held it up to the girls. The picture featured a stick figure with wings attacking a stick figure with what they could only figure to be a bow and arrow.

“Is that supposed to be me?” he asked.

“Well, unless anyone else round here is using a bow and arrow, then yes, that’s you,” said Wanda.

“Hey,” Clint said, one hand pointing at Wanda, the other on his hip. “Enough of that attitude young lady”

The others all shared a weird look at Clint’s behaviour. It was at that moment Steve walked into the room. He looked at Clint and raised one eyebrow.

“Clint?” he asked. “What are you doing?”

Before he had the chance to answer, Wanda butted in.

“Apparently, he’d had enough of my attitude,” she said.

Steve shook his head in a confused manner and walked over to where Clint was stood by the fridge and peered over his shoulder. He reached in and came back with a post it note that had a picture of stick figure Sam attacking stick figure Steve.

“Why is Sam doing this?” he asked. “I mean I know he can be a little passive aggressive, but this is crazy by even his standards”

“Oh, the notes on the food are normal by his standards,” came a new voice at the door. Everyone turned to look and see who it was. Scott walked over to the fridge and pulled out the post it note that featured stick figure him.

“You guys should’ve seen what he did the other day,” he said. “One of my t-shirts –just one- crossed the line of tape onto his side of the room and he labelled the entire line with post it notes that had little arrows pointing to either side so I would know which side was mine and which was his”

Everyone stared at him dumbfounded at what he was saying about Sam.

“Also, I have a question: where on earth is he getting all these post it notes from?” Scott asked.

Clint shrugged as everyone sat in complete silence. Suddenly Wanda’s head shot up, a devious smirk on her face.

“I have a plan,” she said.

***

A few hours later, everyone came back into the kitchen for dinner. Sam was the last one down. Laura spoke up just as he was about to pull out the only free chair.

“You can’t sit there, it’s taken,” she said, holding back her laughter.

“What?” he exclaimed. “By who?”

“I think you’ll find by me,” said Scott from the other side of the table.

Sam pulled back the chair and let out a sigh.

“Really tic-tac?” he asked as he looked down at the box of tic-tacs placed on his seat, as everyone else around the table lost it with laughter.


	7. Trouble In A Purple Beetle

10/8/16

The day of the attack had started off like any other. She’d woken up. She had gone out on her morning run, before coming back to her room, eating her breakfast and heading off to start her day. It looked like just another day in her life. But she was wrong, so very wrong.

That was the day that Hydra attacked the S.H.I.E.L.D. academy.

***

That day had been nearly two years ago, the day that S.H.I.E.L.D. fell. By some miracle, she, along with a few others, had managed to escape the attack at the academy, thanks to a few of the teachers that weren’t Hydra. Ever since then, she’d been scouring the country for him, her mentor from when she had studied at the academy. And it seemed that today was the day she found him.

She had only been planning on passing through the town, when she heard the gossip coming from the locals. She was sat in the diner when she heard the conversation from the two people in the booth next to hers.

“I just feel so bad for that poor woman, you know,” came the first voice.

“Yeah, she’s been left alone with those three kids, nothing from him because he’s too busy off being an Avenger and then getting himself arrested like that,” replied a second voice.

“Always mucking about with that bloody bow and arrow as well, I mean, of all the weapons in the world, that’s what he chose,”

She didn’t need to hear the rest of the conversation –and, if she was honest, she didn’t want to carry on listening to a conversation that was insulting archery- she’d heard enough to know she was in the right place. She slid around in her seat so she was facing the two women.

“Excuse me, but I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation,” she said with the sweetest possible smile on her face. “I’m a private investigator and I’m looking into the disappearances of some of the Avengers and it seems to me like you two have a little bit of information that may be very useful to me. Could you be so kind as to point me in the right direction?”

***

 _Well_ she thought to herself as she walked out of the diner. _That was easy enough._

She got in her car and followed the directions that the two women gave her out of town and a few miles down the road. She turned off the main road and started heading down a small dirt track towards the farmhouse that the women in the diner had pointed her towards. Within a few minutes, she was pulling up outside a large white farmhouse and an old looking brown barn. A woman with long brown hair slid carefully out a door, one arm hidden behind her back. In the downstairs window, she could see two children peering out, a third sat in a baby seat at the table behind them.

“Can I help you?” the woman asked.

She looked around, surveying the rest of the house for a minute, and then she saw it. Or rather, she saw him. Up in a window on the top floor, she saw somebody spying down on her. She pushed her sunglasses down and smirked at him.

“Shoulda known you’d be here Hawkguy,”

***

For the second time since they’d started hiding out at the farm, an unannounced visitor in a car had turned up. This time, Scott had been sure to pick up any pictures that he’d drawn and Wanda had thought that she would be forced to relinquish the hiding place of her cookies for a second time. From their hiding spot in Wanda’s room, they heard Laura go outside to greet whoever it was. They all knew that she would be hiding a gun behind her back. Clint had to admit, he was curious. There was something about that car that seemed familiar, where had he seen that purple beetle before? He crept up to the window and looked out to see who it was.

The driver of the car got out and looked around the farmhouse. It was a girl in her early twenties with long black hair. She was wearing what looked to be expensive, designer clothing, most of it purple. She looked up at the window at him and smirked. She pushed her sunglasses down to reveal a familiar pair of icy blue eyes.

“Shoulda known you’d be here Hawkguy,”

“She’s alive,” he muttered to himself, before he ran out of the door and down the stairs.

***

The girl stood there in awkward silence for a few seconds, unsuccessfully attempting to avoid awkward eye contact with the woman. Just as she was about to say something, she heard someone come barrelling down the stairs. Her old mentor charged out the door and grabbed her by the arms, staring at her in shock, as if he couldn’t quite believe that she was stood there in front of him.

“It’s actually you, how is it you?” he asked.

“A few of the teachers from the school were able to get some of us out when Hydra attacked. I wanted to stay and help, but they wouldn’t let me. Good thing really, not many people that I knew made it out of there alive. I tried to find you, but it was pretty hard,” she replied with a smirk. “Now I have a question: what on earth possessed you to become a criminal?”

She looked over his shoulder at the end of her sentence. A small group of people had gathered on the porch and were watching the exchange with confusion.

“Hi, you guys must be the rest of the fugitive Avengers,” she said with a small wave.

A girl she recognised to be Wanda Maximoff, or Scarlet Witch as she was more commonly known, was the first one to speak.

“Dad?” she asked. “Who’s this?”

She smirked. So, he was ‘Dad’ to Wanda Maximoff then, well that explained why he got involved with this drama. Well, that and the fact he loved drama.

Clint turned back around to face the confused crowd of onlookers, one hand still on her arm.

“Everyone, this is Kate Bishop. Kate this is everyone,” he said.

“Hi,” said Kate. “Nice to meet you all”

***

Kate sat awkwardly in an armchair in the living room of the Barton residence. Clint was sat with the woman she’d seen earlier and Scarlet Witch on a sofa to her left. Opposite her, Captain America and Falcon were sat on another sofa with another man she guessed was Ant Man. The three children were sat on a few beanbags on the floor on her other side. She watched them send odd looks at each other the top of the mug of coffee she was drinking. In an attempt to seem normal, she reached down and petted the dog that had curled up at her feet.

“So,” the woman said. “You’re Kate. I’ve actually heard a lot about you from Clint”

“That’s funny,” Kate said. “Because I’ve never heard anything about you. Who are you?”

The woman smiled and the men tried not to laugh.

“Kate,” Clint said. “This is Laura, my wife”

Kate was able to place her coffee down on the table before she dropped it. This was definitely an interesting development. She tried to say something, but she couldn’t do anything other than open and close her mouth like a fish. Clint saw this and took pity on her, and carried on talking before she had the chance to say anything weird.

“And those are our kids: Cooper, Lila and Nathaniel,” he said, pointing to each pf his kids in turn.

Kate blinked furiously as she processed the information she’d just been given.

“If it helps,” Captain America said to her. “You’re taking this a lot better than Stark”

“Yeah,” Laura added in. “He said I was an agent of some kind and that the kids were smaller agents”

“And Sam actually passed out” said Ant Man.

“Okay,” Kate said, turning in her seat. “Other than Ant Man, who are you?”

His face fell and he muttered something under his breath that sounded like “nobody ever knows who I am”. Falcon, or ‘Sam’, barely stifled a laugh from next to him.

“Well, I’m Steve, but you probably already knew that,” Captain America said. “That’s Scott,” he said as he pointed to Ant Man. “This is Sam,” he gestured to Falcon who gave a small wave. “That’s Wanda,” he pointed to Wanda who smiled at her from where she was sat leaning against Clint. “And you’ve already been introduced to Laura and the smaller agents and apparently, you and Clint are best buddies already”

Kate couldn’t help but smirk at that last comment.

“May I ask who you are?” Steve asked.

“I think you just did,” Kate said with a smirk. “My name’s Kate Bishop and before the whole Hydra fiasco two years ago, I was training at the S.H.I.E.L.D. academy. But, that, well… you know what happened”

Steve and Sam nodded, remembering the events at the Triskelion and the attacks they heard about at other S.H.I.E.L.D. bases and the academy.

Scott, on the other hand looked confused.

“Wait,” he said. “So, how do you know Clint then?”

“He was my mentor at the academy. Apparently, he was the best marksman they had, which went to his head a little,” Kate said, the others snickering at her last comment.

“She was meant to be my replacement, if I did retire or was killed. She was going to be the new Hawkeye,” Clint said, looking quite proud of Kate. “Until then, we were going to be a team of Hawkeyes, much to Nat’s annoyance- she can hardly stand one Hawkeye on missions, she really didn’t want two”

Everyone sat in silence for a moment, digesting the information that they’d just been given. They had to admit, two Hawkeyes did sound slightly worrying.

“If you’re thinking that Nat was right, then in all honesty, she probably was,” Kate said, observing Clint’s teammates. “We were already beginning to annoy some of the others”

It was Clint’s turn to look confused.

“Who were we annoying? And how?” he asked.

“It was the whole thing whenever we entered a room,” Kate said, beginning to laugh. Clint still looked confused. “When you’d say ‘after you Hawkeye’ and I‘d say ‘thank you Hawkeye’. I thought it was funny, but nobody else did. Everyone thought it was really annoying”

Clint was beginning to laugh a bit now, clearly remembering what she was talking about. Even the rest were beginning to grin at the thought of the two saying that before going through every door.

“Everybody?” Clint asked through his laughter. “By that do you mean Billy and America? Because you literally never spent time with anyone else”

Kate gave him a look of mock horror, throwing her hand up to her chest and making a scandalised gasp.

“How dare you say something as rude as that, suggesting I had no other friends there,” she gasped. “Even though that is pretty true because everyone else annoyed me”

“Hold on,” Laura interjected. “You had a friend named America? And I thought Steve here could be a little overly patriotic at times”

Steve glared at her as everyone else continued to laugh.

“So,” Wanda said. “Why did you act so dramatic when she turned up earlier?

Clint took in a deep breath before he carried on with the epic tale of the two Hawkeyes.

“After S.H.I.E.L.D fell, I went back to the academy to see if Kate or either of her friends were there. It was horrible, the chaos and the damage caused. Very few students survived the Hydra attack and even fewer of the teachers. I spent weeks trying to find Kate and the other two, but I couldn’t and all of the bodies could be recovered from the wreckage. I eventually just presumed the worst and gave up looking for you. I’m sorry”

Kate shrugged at his last comment.

“That’s okay,” she said. “What else were you supposed to do? Besides, you clearly had much more important things to do, such as making sure this place was protected from crazy Nazis, though I’m not really sure you get any other kind of Nazi”

Steve nodded in agreement; he’d met plenty of Nazis in his time, and none of them ever struck him as being particularly sane. Sam also nodded.

“Nazis be crazy,” he said.

“How did you find us?” Laura asked.

“Just some general snooping around,” Kate said. “That and conveniently timed gossips in town. Another win for Bishop Investigations”

“Bishop Investigations?” Clint asked, smirking. “What’s all that about?”

“Well,” she said. “A girl’s gotta get by, so I became a PI, with America and Billy helping me. Although, they keep disputing the name. And they’ll be pretty annoyed around about now when they realised I’ve driven off without them, don’t worry, I’ll go back for them”

Clint stared in confusion at Kate for a few seconds, his jaw having dropped in shock at what she’d just said. Laura, who was sat next to him, waved her hand in front of his face, but got no response from her husband. Eventually, Wanda moved from her position against his side and with one small flick of her wrist, small red tendrils flew in front of his face. That seemed to bring him back down to earth.

“What do you mean ‘a girl’s gotta get by’ Kate?” he practically shrieked. “Your dad’s a millionaire, you’re loaded”

Kate shrugged.

“He’d never been that big a fan of what I was doing before Hydra, and now, he thinks I’m insane,” she said. “Decided I was better off without him”

Clint nodded. Then, he had an idea.

“So, Kate,” he said in a challenging tone. “You got a bow in that car”

***

Several hours, several targets full of arrows –each shot from increasingly weird and impressive angles- and one lunch break later the shoot off was called at a draw between the two Hawkeyes. Cooper, Lila and Nathaniel had long since gone to bed and Wanda had fallen asleep on the porch swing. Laura, Steve, Scott and Sam had gone inside to sort out tea for the adults, leaving Clint and Kate to talk alone.

Kate was glaring at her bag as she struggled to shove her bow and arrows back inside. Clint knelt down next to her and began to help her position everything inside. As he turned the bow over in an attempt to shove it in at a different angle, he saw a familiar crest engraved on the side.

“This is the same bow that you used at the academy,” he said, his voice low as to not wake Wanda.

“Yeah, I was training when the attack began. I managed to fight my way out using it. This bow’s seen a few fights with Hydra in its life,” she said, staring down at the bow in her hands.

She suddenly stood up, Clint quickly following her. She slung her bag over her shoulder and stuck her hand out.

“Well it was good to see ya Hawkeye. I’d best be going; it’s gone dark and the others will probably think I’m dead. I’ll keep in touch,” she said.

“Good to see you too Hawkeye,” he said. “But, before you go, I need you to do me a favour. Could you hold the door open for me, my hands are slightly full”

Kate looked confused.

“What do you mean- oh, wait. I got ya,” she said as she held the door open for Clint who carried Wanda’s sleeping form in his arms.


	8. An Old Friend

8/10/16

After having so many random visitors dropping by the farmhouse unannounced, everyone thought that they wouldn’t be surprised by anything now. They were wrong. Very wrong.

It had been four months since they’d all been officially declared fugitives, and just over three and a half since they’d arrived at the farmhouse and things were very relaxed for Team Captain America. It was now early September and the “smaller agents” were off back to school, held to their word they wouldn’t tell anyone of the real stories of what they did over the summer, nothing involving the farm’s ridiculous pet superheroes, as they’d all been dubbed by Laura.

It was early on a Monday morning and the pet superheroes were just beginning to drag themselves out of bed and head downstairs for breakfast. Just as they were all beginning to sit/flop down asleep at the kitchen table, the proximity alarm that was set up by the entrance to the farm was triggered. Usually, this wouldn’t be a problem at this time in the morning; it would just be Laura arriving home from taking the smaller agents to school. But, Laura had said that she was going to go to the PTA meeting and attempt to deal with Stephanie. She wouldn’t have gone, but Tina was desperate for her help, Stephanie had been getting crazier and crazier recently. Personally, Clint was blaming it all on Terrance. People in town thought that Clint was bad, but at least he was helping people. Terrance was just weird.

So, that was why the team panicked slightly when the proximity alarm went off. They knew what to do. They quickly hid everything that they’d had out, making sure that nothing that would give away they were there could be seen from the windows. They sprinted up the stairs, Wanda briefly stopping at the bottom of the stairs to make sure the door was locked. She met up with Clint at the top of the stairs, who was running out of his and Laura’s room with the bow and arrows he kept hidden in the false bottom of the wardrobe. The two of them followed the others into Wanda’s room and Clint ran up to the window, notching an arrow in place. He reached the window just as a small black car pulled out of the woodlands surrounding the farm. The windows were tinted and he couldn’t see who was inside. He heard them approach the front door. He hoped that whoever it was would just go away once they realised Laura was not in.

That was not what happened. Instead, he heard the click of the door unlocking and someone letting themselves into the house.

 _Dad?_ He heard Wanda’s voice in his head. _Do you think it might be Nat?_

 _I don’t know_ he replied. He wasn’t sure if it was her, after all, she had found Bruce and from the occasional postcard they received in the mail –always with a Polaroid photo of the two of them- she seemed happy.

They heard the sound of the coffee machine being switched on, and it was only a few seconds before the rich smells of the coffee cam wafting up through the house. The sound of footsteps across the floor stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

“Are you going to come down and say hello or what?” came a familiar voice.

Steve and Clint shared a shocked look of confusion before dashing out of the door and down the stairs. Wanda was closely behind them, Sam just behind her and Scott trailing awkwardly at the back of the group. They all piled into the kitchen to see Nick Fury sat at the table drinking a cup of coffee, another for each member of the team already out on the table, including Clint’s world’s best dad mug.

“Nice mug,” was all Fury said.

Before Clint could say anything, he was beaten to it.

“Thanks. I bought it for him,” said Wanda with more sass than usual.

She sat herself down opposite him at the table and grabbed her mug, a sparkly red one, and began to slowly sip her coffee while staring Fury down. Clint sat down next her at the table and also grabbed his mug.

“So, erm, you’re Nick Fury?” Scott asked as he sat down on the other side of Wanda and grabbed his mug, one with the Pym Technologies logo on the side. Clint had gotten Laura to buy it off the internet as a joke for him.

“Well duh,” Fury said. He looked over at Steve and Sam, who were still stood by the door. “Well sit down then”

Sam took a seat next to Scott and grabbed his mug, one with a picture of a falcon on the side and the word _falconidae_ written underneath. Steve went over to the cupboard and pulled out a box filled with Wanda’s latest batch of cookies (well, at least the ones she hadn’t hidden from Sam) before he sat down between Sam and Fury, and grabbed his mug, decorated with a picture of his shield. Fury leaned back in his chair and looked at them all, sipping slowly form his pirate mug.

“So, who else knows you’re here?” he asked the group.

“Nat does,” Clint replied. “And Bruce and Thor. And Tony. And Kate. Who probably told America and Billy”

Fury stared at Clint, probably annoyed at his former top agent, who had managed to let a lot of people know about his top secret hideout that he and a group of fugitives hide at.

“Plus, I think Stephanie may be slightly suspicious,” Wanda added, remembering her time spent hidden under the sofa.

“Stephanie from the PTA?” asked Fury, earning some weird looks from everyone but Clint as to knowing so much about the workings of the small town.

“Yeah,” said Clint. “That Stephanie”

“Well, as long as it doesn’t involve Terrance, I don’t think she’ll ever figure it out. That woman is as dumb as they come,” Fury said while laughing. “I mean, I’m used to kids asking me if I’m a pirate, but a fully grown woman. And she was being deadly serious. That is the last time I let your wife convince me to go and buy something form the store for her. I’m not living through that embarrassment ever again.

He and Clint both sat there laughing at what were clearly some very weird memories of the times Fury came visiting the farm.

“So, what have you guys been up to?” Fury asked after finally stopping laughing. “I’m guessing that there’s a story behind that mug”

Clint rolled his eyes, and both Steve and Sam hung their heads in despair while Wanda and Scott shared an evil glance at each other.

“Well,” Wanda began. “It started when a certain idiot ate all of the ice-cream…”

***

They were all still sat there a few hours later when Laura arrived back from the PTA meeting. By this point, they were on their third pot of coffee and Wanda had gone and gotten the secret stash of cookies she had hidden in her room. Laura heard the laughter from the porch, as she let herself in, surprised to find the door unlocked.

“Hello,” she called into the house. “I’m home”

She heard the sound of a chair scraping the floor in the kitchen and the sound of someone walking towards the door. A few seconds later, Clint was in front of her. He greeted her with a quick kiss before leading her into the kitchen.

“Nick,” she exclaimed when she saw Fury sitting at the table.

“Long time no see,” he said as he stood to greet her. She walked over and hugged him before sitting down next to her husband who had sat back down next to Wanda. Steve and Sam exchanged a confused look at Nicky Fury willingly letting someone hug him, not something that they ever expected to see. Fury went over to the cupboard and grabbed another mug for Laura.

“Thanks,” she said as she took the mug from him and began to fill it with coffee. Clint raised his eyebrow at the novelty Hawkeye mug she was drinking from.

“So,” she said after taking a long sip of the coffee, the PTA meeting obviously having not gone too well. “Are you sticking around for long? Because I’m sure Lila and Cooper will be very excited to see their Uncle Nick”

***

He was still there when Lila and Cooper got home from school. Even if he had wanted to leave, he wasn’t sure if Laura would let him. Lila and Cooper loved him, almost as much Auntie Nat. Almost. The first indication that he’d been spotted was the shocked gasp from Lila.

“Uncle Nick!” she cried out as she sprinted across the living room and into the kitchen. As soon as she reached him, her arms latched around his legs. Cooper was not far behind her.

“Lila Katherine Barton! Cooper Phillip Barton! What on earth do you two think you are doing?!” exclaimed Laura. “Take your muddy boots back outside right now”

Lila and Cooper looked down at the floor to see the trail of mud that followed them from the door to where they were stood now. Lila grinned sheepishly at Laura.

“Sorry Mommy,” she said with her most innocent voice. Laura sighed at her, the big puppy dog eyes not working.

“No, you know to take your shoes off when they’re muddy. Even the dog knows not to come in when he’s got muddy paws,” Laura said, pointing towards the door where the dog was sat waiting. When he saw everyone looking at him, his tail slowly started to wag.

“What is it?” Wanda asked Lucky, grinning as his tail started going even faster, whacking the porch loudly.

Lila looked up at Fury, a look of complete innocence on her face. Fury sighed and looked over at Laura, with a defeated look on his face. Laura kept her hands on her hips, determined not to be beaten by a six-year-old, unlike Fury.

“Fine, I’ll go back outside,” Lila said with a dramatic sigh, as she stalked back across the room and out the front door. Fury barely managed to suppress a laugh as she went, her brother right behind her.

“She really does take after you Hawkeye,” he said to Clint. Clint grinned and nodded at Fury. “Speaking of Hawkeyes, have you heard from Kate recently, because I think she and her friends might be up to something”

Clint groaned and put his head in his hands.

“What are they up to?” he asked. Fury didn’t answer, just smirked.

“I’m sure you’ll see in the news sooner or later,” he said, acting as mysterious and secretive as ever.

Clint flopped onto the sofa in despair and Laura and Wanda an eye roll from either side of the room.

“Okay, Lila and Cooper, outside now. Come on, go. Go!” Laura said, clapping her hands together as she chased the two laughing children out of the house. Fury watched them go and sighed in relief as they disappeared out of the door.

“Well, I kept my end of the deal,” he said to the superheroes sat in the kitchen and dining room, still clutching mugs of coffee. “I’ll be off then”

“Why?” Steve asked. “Why don’t you stay for very long? You’ve only been here a few hours”

“I can’t risk staying here too long,” he said, turning to gaze out the window. Wanda and Clint to follow his gaze to see he was looking at Laura and the kids outside. “Don’t want to risk anything happening to them. I’ve put too much time and effort into keeping them safe so far, I’m not having that be a waste of time now”

He began to walk towards the back door, grabbing his coat and bag as he went. He was almost out the door, when a voice stopped him.

“You have to tell us,” Clint said. “What is Kate up to? And Billy and America?”

Fury snorted.

“Believe me you’ll know it when you see it,” he said as he walked out of the door. “I’ll tell Natasha and Bruce that you all said hi”

And with that he was gone.

***

It was a few days later when Clint realised what Fury meant. Wanda had been the first up and was sat on a sofa the newspaper sat on the table in front of her when Clint came downstairs. She was staring at the paper in confusion as he walked in. He leaned against the doorframe and looked at her.

“What’s up kid?” he asked her. She looked up at him, seemingly startled by his presence. For a second she seemed panicked

“Oh, Dad, it’s you,” she said, calming down when she figured out who was there. “I think I know what Nick Fury was talking about”

Clint walked around the table and sat next to her on the sofa. She leaned into his side and he instinctively wrapped an arm around her shoulder. He looked down at the paper and sighed.

“I recognise Kate, but who are the others?” Wanda asked.

“That’s Billy and that’s America,” Clint said, pointing to the two of them in the picture on the front cover. “But I don’t know the rest”

A silence washed over the house as the two of them looked down at the paper, with the large headline in bold print reading “Young Avengers?”


	9. 24 Days Of Ficmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to upload this as just one chapter rather than uploading it as a separate story as I felt as uploading a Christmas fic in August xx

** 1st December **

“No Cooper, I called dibs,” Lila yelled at her brother.

Wanda woke to the sound of her younger siblings arguing in Cooper and Nathaniel’s room next door to hers. She sighed and dragged herself out of bed. She left her room and knocked on the door before she entered the other room. She stifled a laugh as she saw what was happening in front of her: Lila and Cooper were stood in the middle of the room, one advent calendar abandoned on the floor between them, another in their hands, a game of tug of war going on over it.

“Hey!” Cooper yelled as the advent calendar flew out of his hands. He glared at his younger sister, only to see that she didn’t have it either. Both of them looked up to see the advent calendar floating above their heads.

“What’s going on?” Wanda asked the two of them, small tendrils of red light dancing around her finger as she used her powers to keep the advent calendar above their heads.

“I called dibs on that advent calendar with Vision on. But now he’s saying that he called dibs and I have to have the War Machine one,” Lila said. She looked up at Wanda with large round eyes, hoping that her big sister would take her side.  Wanda just rolled her eyes at Lila.

“Why on Earth are you two fighting over those two calendars?” came Sam’s voice. Wanda moved to the side, allowing Sam to come in. “Seriously, those two?”

Wanda glared at Sam and made cutting motions at her neck with her hand.

“Why not Uncle Sam?” Lila asked. Through the doorway, she saw Scott snicker and elbow Steve. It had been months and for some reason, Scott still found ‘Uncle Sam’ funny. Steve did not. Sam glanced Wanda and rolled his eyes.

“Well you see Lila,” he said, bending down to look Lila in the eye. “The thing with these two is that both of them are really mean people- well a person and an android- that both tried to hurt me a few months ago”

Lila looked at Sam in shock with wide worried eyes. “What happened?” she asked.

“I was fine, but War Machine got hurt and now your Uncle Tony kinda hates me,” Sam said. Lila nodded and Cooper took her momentary distraction and grabbed the Vision advent calendar and charged out of the room. Lila gasped and ran off after him.

“Cooper!” she yelled, thundering down the stairs, making the upstairs floorboards of the old farmhouse shake. How it had survived having five superheroes living there fulltime the last few months, Wanda would never know.

“Sam,” she said, picking the abandoned War Machine advent calendar off the floor and handing it to him. “You’d best take this down with you”

Sam grabbed the calendar and ran after the two kids. Wanda sighed and crossed the room to where Nathaniel still lay in his cot, still sleeping, despite all the noise and chaos that had just gone down in his room.

“I’ll admit I’m a little jealous of you,” Wanda whispered softly to him, rubbing her hand against him. “I wish I could have slept through those two arguing. Siblings, huh?”

She quietly walked away from the cot and carefully closed the door, determined not to wake him up. She padded back across the landing and back into her own room. She was going to get at least another hour’s sleep.

 

 

** 2nd of December **

Scott felt something funny rub against his leg as he was stood washing the dishes from breakfast. He looked down and saw Lucky stood by him, staring up at him with one big brown eye. This wasn’t weird, he actually saw that a lot. It was the antlers that confused him. A pair of comical bright red antlers on a headband had been placed on his head.

“Hey there little guy,” he said, crouching down to Lucky’s level, pulling the washing gloves off and placing them on the side. “Who did this to you then?”

“Who did what?”. Scott stood up quickly, hitting his head on the side as he stood, and turned to look at Clint. He grinned sheepishly at him and Clint gave him a puzzled look and went to join him round his side of the kitchen. He saw Lucky, his head tipped to one side, tongue hanging out of his mouth and antlers on his head and snorted.

“Who put antlers on Lucky?” Clint asked, still sniggering at the sight of the dog. “Hey Laura, come look at this”

Laura came into the kitchen, a Frozen backpack and a Batman backpack in one hand and Nathaniel in his car seat in the other. She had her coat half on and her handbag tucked under her arm.

“LILA, COOPER, GET DOWNSTAIRS AND GET YOUR SHOES AND COATS ON. WE’RE GOING TO BE LATE,” she yelled at the kids before turning to Clint and Scott. “This had better be important. I needed to leave five minutes ago and there is a PTA meeting about the Christmas party starting in less than half an hour”

Clint and Scott turned to look at each other awkwardly.

“Lucky,” Clint said. “Go to Laura”

Lucky’s ears perked up and he trotted towards Laura. She stared at the antlers on the dog before huffing and turning back around to where Lila and Cooper had just come into the room.

“Who put antlers on Lucky?” she seethed. Cooper looked past her with wide eyes and laughed at the dog who was bouncing around with the crazy antlers on his head. Lila looked down at the ground.

“Lila. Katherine. Barton. We’ll talk about this in the car,” she said as she ushered the kids out of the door. As she left, she turned back to face the other two. “Get those antlers off Lucky”

She dashed out of the door and moments later they heard the car start up and head off up the track through the woods and towards the main road. Clint walked into the living room and saw Lucky curled up on one of the beanbags in the corner. Clint slowly crept towards him and gently reached to grab the antlers. At the last second, Lucky jumped up and ran to the other side of the room and Clint fell and landed on the beanbag.

“Don’t worry,” Scott called out. “I got this”. He dived across the low wall that separated the kitchen and the living room, half landing on the sofa. Lucky, deciding that this was a game, ran out of the room and up the stairs. Before Clint could stand up and chase after him, he came floating back down, a look of confusion on his face. A few seconds later, Wanda walked in, her hand stretched out in front of her. Clint grinned at her from his position sprawled out on the beanbags.

“Could you do me a favour and take those antlers off Lucky?” he said with a grin. She looked over at Clint and Scott and raised one eyebrow.

“Do I want to ask?” she asked.

“Probably not,” said Scott, his voice muffled by the floor. Wanda reached over and plucked the antlers off Lucky and set him back on the floor. The second his paws hit the ground, he bolted over to the door and started scratching to go out. Wanda opened the door and gasped.

“Wanda, sweetie,” Clint said. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. It’s snowing”

 

 

** 3rd of December **

Wanda loved her little sister. She really did. Just not a half past six in the morning. There were two knocks on her door, followed by two quicker ones and then one more.

“Do you wanna build a snowman?” Lila sang off key from the other side of the door. Without even lifting her head from her pillow, Wanda stuck her hand out from under the covers and opened the door with her powers. Lila tumbled into the room.

“Lila. It is half past six in the morning and still dark out. No, I do not want to build a snowman right now,” she muttered into her pillow. There was the sound of feet pattering across the floor towards her bed. Wanda opened one eye to see Lila stood less than a foot away from her face.

“It doesn’t have to be a snowman,” she whispered. Wanda growled, her eyes flashing red. Lila gasped and bolted out of the room, closing the door behind her. Wanda sighed and closed her eyes, determined to get a little more sleep.

***

A couple of hours later, there was another knock at the door. Wanda groggily lifted her head and stared at the door. She flicked her hand and a small burst of red energy opened the door. She squinted at the sudden bright light spilling through the door.

“Dad?” she asked confused, he normally let her sleep in on the weekends.

“Hey kiddo, you coming down for breakfast? I’m making pancakes,” he asked. Wanda nodded and he grinned at her. “Oh and about when you come down, sorry”. Clint grinned and slipped out of her room. Wanda buried herself back under the covers for a few seconds, before fully realising what he’d just said.

“Dad?” she called out, throwing the covers off herself. She shivered in the cold winter air and grabbed her slippers and dressing gown, throwing them on as she chased him downstairs. “What do you mean by sorry?”. She skidded to a halt as she came into the living room. Everyone was sat around the kitchen table, several stacks of pancakes on plates. Lila jumped up from her seat, ran over to her and hugged her legs.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you for helping us build a snowman,” she squealed. Wanda didn’t say anything, just glared at Clint, who just ducked his head down.

***

One hour, and a whole stack of pancakes, Wanda was stood outside in the freezing cold and snow, rolling a ball of snow. She looked over to Cooper, who was rolling another ball near to her. Lila was over at the edge of the woods, finding ‘the perfect sticks for arms’.

“How much longer do we have to stay outside?” Wanda asked him.

“Until Lila says we can go back inside,” he said. “She’s in charge”

“She’s your younger sister, why is she in charge?” she asked him. Cooper stopped and glared at her.

“Isn’t she your younger sister as well?” he said. Wanda glared at him, he didn’t always act like it, but he really took after their Dad sometimes.

“Touché,” she replied. She turned and yelled to Lila. “Hey Lila, when can we go back inside?”

“When we’ve finished making a snowman, and with you two standing around chitter-chattering, that’s not going to be anytime soon,” she said with her hands on her hips. She definitely too after her mother. Wanda sighed and waved her hands. The two large snowballs that she and Cooper had been making floated into the air and gently landed one on top of the other. A thin layer of snow rose of the ground and formed another snowball which sat on top of the other two. The two sticks flew out of Lila’s and stuck themselves on either side of the second snowball. Wanda flicked her hands and the small pile of coal and the carrot flew off the porch and stuck themselves in the shape of a face on the top snowball.

“Ta da,” Wanda said with a little bow. “I’m going back in now”. She stalked back to the house, Cooper running behind her. Lila stared after them before shrugging. She bent down and made a small snowball in her hands. She threw it at Lucky, who jumped up and grabbed it in his mouth. She laughed and ran after him, kicking up small clouds of snow as she went.

***

Laura knocked gently on Wanda’s door. After coming in from the garden she’d gone straight up to her room and hadn’t come down for lunch. It was now almost tine for dinner and Laura had gone up to get her.

“Wanda, sweetie, are you awake?” Laura asked. She didn’t hear Wanda say anything, just a round of coughing. She opened the door to see Wanda buried under the covers, coughing violently. Laura rushed over to her side, and sat beside her on the bed. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she managed to say between coughs, before sneezing. Laura rubbed her arm sympathetically.

“I think you’ve got a cold,” she said. “You stay there and I’ll bring you something to eat, okay?”. Wanda nodded and Laura headed out of the room. She was barely through the door and Wanda was asleep again.

**  
**

****

** 4th of December **

“Water is so weird,” Wanda said, staring at the glass of water on the coffee table before sneezing violently. Laura turned to her husband.

“How much cough syrup did you let that girl have?” she asked Clint.

“Well, the bottle said 30ml for age six and she’s nineteen, so I gave her 90ml,” Clint replied. Laura stare at him in disbelief.

“What?” he asked. “I can’t do fractions and Sam would’ve made fun of me if I’d asked”

Laura sighed and buried her head in her hands before looking back up to stare at Clint.

“It’s 30ml for ages six and up,” she said. Clint’s eyes widened in shock and he hurried over to where Wanda was sat.

“Wait,” Laura called after him. “How much do you let Cooper have?”

The two of them sat on either side of Wanda, who was still sat staring at the glass of ‘weird’ water. Wanda leant on Clint’s side and he carefully wrapped his arm around her. Laura gently rubbed her arm.

“Wanda, sweetie, are you okay?” she asked.

Wanda didn’t answer, just buried her head into Clint’s side and squeezed her eyes shut. Clint and Laura exchanged a look over her head, Laura glaring at her husband.

“What?” Clint mouthed at her.

“Your fault,” Laura replied, using her head to point to Wanda.

“How?” Clint spluttered out, forgetting to be quiet.

Laura rolled her eyes. “Oh I don’t know, maybe because you couldn’t read a label properly”

“Guys…”

“What does that have to do with any of this?”

“Guys…”

“You gave her too much and now she’s worse. What do we do if she gets even worse? We can’t exactly just take her to the hospital, they’ll arrest her!”

“GUYS!” Scott whisper-yelled from the other side of the room.

“What?” snapped Laura and Clint, both turning to look at him.

Scott flinched under the murderous glares of the two Bartons. “She’s asleep”

Clint looked down and sure enough, Wanda had fallen asleep, her face still buried into Clint’s side. At some point, she’d tucked her legs up onto the sofa and her feet were half resting on Clint’s lap. Soft snores filled the empty space left when Clint and Laura had stopped bickering. Laura gingerly stood up, carefully moving Wanda’s feet so she didn’t wake her. She walked back into the kitchen and grabbed the bottle of cough syrup.

“Possible side effects include: Nausea, light-headiness, dizziness and increased fatigue,” she said after scanning the label for a few seconds.

“Oh,” was all Clint could say.

He began to stand attempting to not wake Wanda. He’d barely begun to stand when she began to stir in her sleep. She clung tighter onto his shirt and muttered something. Clint lowered himself back onto the sofa and Wanda settled down again.

“What did she say?” Scott asked.

“I don’t know,” Clint said, looking down at Wanda. “I couldn’t hear exactly what she said, but I think she wanted me to stay”

“I’ll make sure the kids stay out of the room and keep quiet,” Laura said.

As if by magic, Lila chose that exact moment to come bounding down the stairs and running into the room.

“MOM!” she yelled as came crashing into the room.

“Lila Katherine Barton, keep your voice down!” Laura exclaimed as quietly as possible. “Your sister is sick and she’s fallen asleep. Do you want to wake her?”

Lila froze and stared at where Wanda was still sleeping on the sofa, curled up against Clint’s side. She pursed her lips in concentration, her eyebrows burrowing as she watched the gentle rise and fall of Wanda’s chest as she slept peacefully. Lila spun on her heel, turning to look at her mom once again.

“But you said we could put the Christmas decorations up today,” Lila said, huffing her chest in frustration. “We always put the tree up on the first Sunday in December, and that’s today”

“I’m sorry Lila, but we can’t right now. Wanda’s asleep and we don’t want to wake her up when she’s not well,” Laura replied, her hands on her hips as she looked down at her youngest daughter.

“What about taking her upstairs and to her room?” Lila said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Have you tried that yet?”

“Well, duh,” Scott muttered under his breath from the other side of the room. Lila turned and glared at him, a glare she’d inherited from both of her parents and had managed to perfect with the help of her Auntie Nat.

“Nobody asked your opinion Uncle Scott,” she spat. Scott choked on his drink, and Clint and Laura were barely able to hide their laughter. She turned back to Laura, her eyes widened with the look of an innocent puppy on her face. “Please Mommy, we’ll be really quiet,”

Laura tried to remain stern, but Clint could see the corner of her eye twitching as she struggled to keep a straight face at their daughter. He bit his lip to stop himself laughing at his wife’s reaction. She caught his eye and glared at him and shot a mock glare back at him. They somehow managed to have a silent conversation between the two of them, the only method of communication being the changes in their facial expressions, largely expressed by their eyebrows. Scott watched the two in confusion. Eventually, they reached the end of their ‘conversation’ and Laura sighed and turned back to look at Lila.

“Fine,” she said. Lila gasped in shock and rose higher onto her toes and quietly began to clap her hands together.

“Really?”

“Yes. Now go get your uncles and your brother,” Laura said. Lila dashed out of the room, her footsteps echoing up the stairs. Laura cringed at the sound of her daughter yelling for Steve, Sam ad Cooper. She looked over at Wanda, to see she hadn’t been woken by Lila’s yells.

“Poor kid,” she muttered to herself as Lila came crashing down the stairs again. She ducked into the hallway just as Lila and Cooper dashed past her into the living room and glared at Steve and Sam. The pair were running down the stairs, making even more noise than her children. Steve came abruptly to a stop when he saw her glare. Sam crashed into the back of him and the two fell down the last three stairs and landed in a pile at Laura’s feet.

“Keep it down you two!” she exclaimed at the two superheroes sprawled out on the floor in front of her. Steve, who was lying face down with Sam’s left foot on the back of his neck, made a noise that sounded like ‘what’. Laura took that as her cue to carry on. “Wanda’s ill and she’s fallen asleep, so keep it down”

Sam muttered an agreement and Steve gave her a thumbs up as the two managed to untangle themselves from their heap on the floor. They followed Laura into the living room where Cooper and Lila had thrown themselves on the beanbags in the corner and Wanda was still curled asleep on Clint’s side.

“Have you guys tried moving her upstairs?” Sam asked. Laura sighed and saw Steve shake his head in despair out of the corner of her eyes.

“Thank you Sam,” Clint said in a monotone voice with a deadpan look on his face. Scott snorted into his mug. “Why didn’t we think of that? It’s not like we tried that already”

“She started to wake up and we didn’t want to disturb her,” Laura interjected before her husband could continue. “I promised Lila that we could put the Christmas decorations up today and I have a plan. But I’m going to need all of your help to do it without waking Wanda up. Except you Clint. Don’t move. At all”

***

When Wanda woke, she could see lights flashing behind eyelids. She winced at the lights, fully expecting them to be part of another migraine, which she seemed to almost always get whenever she was ill.

“Is she waking up?” asked a voice. She opened her eyes slightly to see who was talking and gasped at the sight in front of her.

The flashing lights weren’t actually an oncoming migraine. Instead, the entire room around her had been decorated while she had slept. In the corner, next to the TV, stood a giant Christmas tree, its deep green branches decorated with sparkling ornaments. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the Avengers themed ornaments that Laura had bought as a joke last year. Flashing lights were wrapped around the tree and a glistening star shone on top. The coffee table had been taken over by model reindeer and snowmen and a string of fairy lights in the shape of snowflakes had been hung from the window.

“Think she is,” her Dad said, helping her to sit up. She gazed round the room in wonder, marvelling at it all. Even though she, Tony, Steve and Natasha had come to the Barton house for Christmas the year before, she still wasn’t used to the novelty of Christmas in America. It had never been like this growing up with her parents and Pietro in Sokovia. And when their parents had died, she and Pietro could never afford to celebrate Christmas.

“You feeling better sweetie?” her Mom asked. Wanda nodded at her. All of a sudden, a snowball collided with the window. “I got Steve, Sam and Scott to take the kids outside, AND I TOLD LILA NOT THROW ANY SNOWBALLS TOO CLOSE TO THE HOUSE!”

There were a few seconds of silence before Lila yelled “sorry”.

Laura came over and sat down next to Wanda. Wanda leaned on her side. Clint made a mock offended look at the two of them and Laura stuck her tongue out of him. Wanda giggled at the two of them.

“Merry Christmas Wanda,” Laura said to her. Before Wanda could respond, another coughing fit shook her body. Clint rubbed her back.

“Do you want any more cough syrup?”

 

 

** 5th of December **

When Laura came home with the kids from school, she had two large bags overflowing with tinsel and silly looking Christmas hats hanging from her arms. Steve stared at the bags as she came through the door.

“Do I want to know what those are for?” he asked. “Because I’m not sure I do”

“Barton family tradition,” she responded. “Every year, we take a silly photo to put on the Christmas cards that we send out to people. I needed more supplies for this year because we have more people this year”. Scott followed her into the living room, watching her as she dumped the bags on the sofa.

“So, you’re saying that you’re going to send a picture with a load of fugitives on it to every member of the PTA,” Scott asked sarcastically. “Because I have a feeling that might get us in a little bit of trouble”. Laura turned and glared at him, her hands on her hips.

“No, unlike my husband, I’m not an idiot,” she said, just as Clint walked into the room. He opened his mouth to say something, but Laura shushed him before he could. “Me and the kids are going to take one and then we’re all going to take one to send to Nat and Bruce in Fiji”

“I’ve seen that postcard hundreds of times,” Steve said as he came into the room. “And I don’t ever remember seeing a return address”. Clint smirked at him.

“There’s one, but only if you know where to look,” he said, attempting to sound mysterious.

“What?” Steve asked confused.

“He means spy stuff,” Wanda translated as she walked into the room. She had a camera bag slung over one shoulder. “I got the camera for you Mom”. Laura grinned and grabbed few hats and jumpers from the bags and handed them out.

“Everybody outside”.

***

Ten minutes later, Laura was stood next to the snowman in the yard, wearing a dorky Christmas jumper and a Santa hat. In her arms, she held Nathaniel, who was wearing a small snowman outfit. Lila was wearing a patterned jumper and a pair of reindeer antlers. Cooper was wearing an elf costume and hat. Wanda couldn’t help but laugh at his grumpy expression. Lucky was wearing the antlers again and was stood in front of them, his head lolled to one side, his tongue hanging out.

“Okay, who’s taking the photo?” Laura asked. Wanda held the camera to Clint.

“Dad, I think you should,” she said through her laughter. Clint shot her a confused expression. “After all, you are the best shot”. Clint groaned at her bad joke and grabbed the camera from her hand.

“Okay guys, smile,” he said as he held the camera and took a few photos. He began to flick through them and Laura came over to look at the photos with him. She grinned at the photos and beckoned to the others.

“Come on you lot,” she said to them. “Don’t think you’re getting out of this”. She grabbed the bags and started handing out what was in them to the others.

Sam ended up wearing an elf costume and hat just like Cooper’s, only bigger. Steve had a jumper with a reindeer on and a Santa hat. Scott had been wrapped in a string of battery powered fairy lights and a chicken hat. Wanda was wrapped up in tinsel and was wearing antlers like Lila’s. Clint had a full Santa suit with fake beard.

“Why do I have to wear the stupid chicken hat?” Scott asked.

“It’s that or the elf costume,” Lila replied. Clint smirked at her from where he was setting up the tripod for the camera.

“It’s ready everyone, get in places guys,” he called as he set the timer. He ran over to the others and stood behind between Laura and Wanda, Cooper and Lila stood in front of them. The light of the camera flashed as they all stood and grinned. Clint dashed back over to the camera and snatched it off the tripod. Everyone huddled around and all tried to see the screen at once.

“Aw, you guys look great,” Laura cooed. Scott glared at the screen.

“Can we take it again?” Scott asked. “I look stupid”

“You’re wearing a chicken hat Uncle Scott,” Lila pointed out. “Of course you look stupid”. Clint snickered at her, he’d taught her well.

“If the picture is fine, can I go back in now? It’s freezing,” Wanda whined.

“Nah-ah,” Lila sassed. “We’re staying out here until we get the perfect picture, and I don’t care if that-”. Laura clamped her hand over her youngest daughter’s mouth.

“Yes, go in Wanda,” she instructed. “Don’t want you to get sick again”. Wanda grinned at her.

“Thanks Mom,” she called back over her shoulder as she scurried back inside, Lucky running along beside her. Laura turned back to Lila and Cooper.

“You two should probably get back inside as well. We all should. But first, Steve, Sam and Scott: go get some more firewood from the shed. And Clint, sort out the tripod,” she instructed.

***

A few hours later, Lila and Cooper were sat around the table, craft supplies scattered around as they made cards for all their friends at school with pictures of them and Laura and Lucky on. Laura was stood at the counter addressing the card for Natasha and Bruce that they had already made, ready to post in the morning. She grabbed one of the few extras that she’d printed off and slipped it into one of the photo frames she kept stashed away especially for this occasion.

“Lila, Cooper, clear the table, it’s nearly time for dinner,” she told them as she walked out the room. She went up the stairs and walked to Wanda’s door and knocked gently before entering. Wanda looked up from where she was sat reading on her bed.

“Mom?” she asked. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong sweetie,” she assured as she came and sat down next to her on her bed. “I just wanted see how you were doing. You seem a lot better than yesterday”. Wanda nodded as she sat up a little next to Laura. She looked at the photo frame in her hands.

“What’s that for?” she asked. Laura handed the photo frame over to her.

“It’s for you,” she said as she handed it over to her. Wanda smiled as she stared down at the photo in her hands. “Come one, time for dinner”. Laura stood up and grabbed her hand and yanked her up and off her bed and back down to the others.

 

 

** 6th of December **

“Do you wanna build a snowman?”

Wanda sighed. She was sick of hearing those songs. She wasn’t even in the country when the film came out and had only been shown it last Christmas. But even she thought that Lila needed to let that film go. Not that she’d ever say that to Lila. Telling her to let it go would only make it worse. But, the songs had to stop.

***

“For the first time in forever”

Clint loved his daughter. He really did. But he did not love Frozen. Not anymore. It had been nice three years ago, but that was three years ago. This was now. And he was sick of those songs. He’d give anything to get those songs out of his life.

***

“Love is an open door”

Lila really reminded Scott his of daughter Cassie sometimes. She did right now, singing Frozen songs non-stop. It was cute at first, but now it was just getting annoying. Last year, he thought he’d never be as sick of Frozen as he was then. He was wrong, so wrong.

***

“Let it go”

Steve sighed. He was sick of Frozen. Tony had made him watch it with him when it first came out three years ago as part of his ‘education on modern society’. Tony had loved it. It wasn’t that Steve didn’t like it, he did. But with Lila singing those songs all the time, he was sick of them. And if he never heard them again, it would be too soon.

***

“He’s just a bit of a fixer upper”

Sam had had it up to his eyeballs with Frozen. Lila had barely stopped singing those songs since the first snow. She was almost always dancing around the house in her Elsa dress. And he was sick of it. He surely couldn’t be the only one.

“Is it just me, or are you guys going insane with all this Frozen?” he questioned Clint, Wanda, Scott and Steve. All four heads shot up immediately.

“Oh thank god it wasn’t just me,” Wanda agreed.

“So you guys agree that something needs to be done about this,” he asked.

Wanda smirked at him. “Oh, I’ve got an idea”

***

“MOOOOOOOOM!” Lila yelled from the top of the stairs. “I CAN’T FIND MY ELSA DRESS”

“Lila Katherine Barton,” Laura called back. “Come downstairs if you want to talk to me”. Lila stormed down the stairs.

“I can’t find my Elsa dress,” she moaned. Laura sighed.

“Where did you last see it?”

“I don’t know”

“Then I can’t help Lila,” she told her. Lila groaned.

“Great,” she sighed. “No more Frozen”. She skulked out of the room. Laura turned to where the others were. “Did you lot have anything to do with this?”

Wanda shrugged, but couldn’t help but smirk as Laura mouthed a thank you at her.

 

 

** 7th of December **

It was only early evening, yet it was already dark out. Two bright lights cut through the darkness. Clint peered out the of the window in confusion. Wanda followed his gaze from across the room.

“Dad?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know,” he responded. “Laura, were you expecting anyone to come round?”. Laura shook her head and joined Clint over by the window. The car pulled up just out of sight of the window. The three of them exchanged worried glances as they heard three pairs of feet walk up the stairs and across the porch towards the door. Someone knocked loudly on the door.

“ _On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me-_ frostbite. Now let us in Barton”

Clint ran over to the door, threw it open and grabbed the person on the other side in a hug, all while laughing. Kate shot a panicked look over Clint’s shoulder and mouthed “help me” at Wanda and Laura. Clint released her from the hug and ushered her in, along with the two people behind her.

“Kate, where are we?” one of them, a Latin American girl, asked. She waved at Clint. “Hey Clint”. Clint waved back at her and turned to Kate.

“You didn’t tell them?” he questioned. Kate smirked at him.

“Thought they should get the same treatment I did: no information until you get here,” she said.

“We got that treatment too,” Sam agreed as he came down the stairs, with Steve and Scott following him.  Kate’s two friends stammered as they walked past them.

“Are those the Avengers?” the other one eventually managed to stammer out, his mouth hanging open.

“Yeah,” Laura added. “Welcome to the Barton Farm: home for fugitive superheroes”

“Barton Farm?” the girl said. “Who else is here?”. Clint grinned and leaned up the stairs slightly.

“LILA. COOPER. COME DOWNSTAIRS,” he yelled. He turned back to the others. “Come in to the living room and I’ll introduce you to everyone”

They followed him and they managed to squish themselves, along with Kate onto the smaller sofa. They watched in confusion as Lila and Cooper came charging in and threw themselves onto the beanbags in the corner. Lila waved over to Wanda, who followed her over and sat down with them. Sam, Steve and Scott were sat on the bigger sofa and Laura had sat herself on the armchair near the Christmas tree. Clint perched on the arm of the chair that Laura was sat in and smiled at Nathaniel, who was sat happily playing in his play pen.

“Hi guys,” Kate said. She gestured to her friends. “These are my friends from the good old days at S.H.I.E.L.D., Billy Kaplan and America Chavez. I’m guessing you guys know who the Avengers are. And Scott”. Scott pouted at her comment.

“Who are the others?” America asked. Clint smiled at her.

“This is my wife Laura and our kids Cooper, Lila and Nathaniel,” he introduced as he pointed to each in turn.

“And Wanda,” Lila piped up from the corner. “Wanda too. Wanda’s my big sister and anyone who says otherwise can fight me”. Wanda grinned and hugged her little sister.

“And anyone who tries to fight my sister can fight me,” she challenged. The others took her word for it.

“How come you never told us about any of this?” Billy questioned. “We knew you for years at S.H.I.E.L.D. and Kate said that even you only told her when she first came here, which she said earlier was only a few months ago”

“This place was kept off S.H.I.E.L.D.’s records, didn’t want to risk any enemies of mine finding them. With what happened with Hydra two years ago, I’m thankful that they were kept that way,” he told them. America and Billy nodded. Clint turned back to Kate. “So what brings you here?”

Kate grinned and grabbed a bag by her feet. She reached in and pulled out a purple Santa hat. “Merry Christmas superheroes and related persons”. Clint pointed sarcastically at the Santa. “What? I love purple. Everything has to be purple with me, I thought you would’ve noticed that by now”.

Lila peered over from where she was sat. “What’s in the bag?”. Kate brined at her and pulled out a present wrapped in purple paper, a sparkly purple bow on top. She handed it to Lila.

“Merry Christmas kid”. Lila gasped as she took the present from Kate. She was about to open it, when Laura cleared her throat. Lila sighed and moved to put the present under the tree. Kate watched her in confusion.

“No presents before Christmas,” Laura told her. She stood up from her chair. “Wait there a moment”. She stood up from her chair and dashed out of the room. Clint slipped off of the arm and settled himself in the armchair.

“Get out of my seat Clint,” Laura called from the stairs. Clint slid onto the floor in front.

“So, Young Avengers then?” Clint asked the group. Kate beamed at him.

“It was my idea,” she said. “Although it was the newspapers that came up with the name”

“I’m guessing you’re Hawkeye, but who are you two?” Sam asked.

“I’m Wiccan and she’s Miss America,” Billy told him.

Steve grinned at them. “Cool name, Miss America”

“Thanks, Captain America,” she shot back. Laura came running back into the room, a present wrapped in a reindeer patterned wrapping paper. She handed it to Kate as she went back to her seat. Kate just stared at the parcel in her hands.

“Oh,” was all she could manage to say. “Thank you. You didn’t have to”

“Sure we did,” Laura said. “And don’t worry, it’s purple”. Before Kate could respond, her, America’s and Billy’s phone all went off.

“It’s Teddy,” Billy said, with a small grin. “Apparently they’ve found whatever Noh-Varr was going on about. They’re waiting for us in Indianapolis. He says to hurry up, Tommy and David are making heart eyes at each other and it’s annoying”

“That’s rich coming from you,” America scoffed. “You and Teddy are insufferable”. She jumped to her feet and grabbed Kate’s hand hauled her off the sofa. “Come on princess, we better get going”

The two girls and Billy went around the room saying goodbye to everyone and promising to visit again in the new year. When they were done, America grabbed Kate by the hand and dragged her out the door, the two of them giggling at something as they went. Billy turned and met Laura’s eyes.

“And me and Teddy are the insufferable ones,” he said with a smirk. He followed the girls out to the car. Clint watched as the rear lights of the car disappeared up the driveway and into the woods.

“What did Billy mean by that?” Clint asked Laura who was stood next to him. “He didn’t mean Kate and America, did he?”

Laura rolled her eyes. “This is like Bruce and Nat all over again”

 

 

** 8th of December **

“This is hideous,” Clint exclaimed as he held the Christmas jumper in front of him. It was a garish purple with a sparkly silver snowflake design.

“Ugly Christmas jumpers are a tradition,” she replied, her voice muffled through the green jumper she was putting on. It had three golden stripes like tinsel and red and blue baubles, giving the overall appearance of a Christmas tree. “Besides doesn’t Nathaniel look cute”

Clint couldn’t argue with her on that one, Nathaniel did look adorable. He was wearing a tiny little jumper that looked like an elf outfit and was sat on the floor with Lucky. He rolled a ball to Luck, who rolled it back with his nose, his tail wagging excitedly.

“But the others won’t like it either,” Clint protested.

“I think Lila and Cooper would beg to differ”. It was true. Lila loved her Christmas jumper, a sparkly Frozen designed one. Cooper had gotten one with a Nightmare Before Christmas design.

“The others won’t like what?” Steve asked as he came into the room, Wanda not far behind him. Clint turned round to talk to him and Steve immediately started laughing when he saw Clint’s jumper. “I’m guessing that’s what you were talking about”

Laura smirked as she chucked a balled up jumper at him. Steve unravelled it and sighed as he took in the design on the front. “Really?” he asked. The picture had one of the old war bonds posters of him, only someone changed it so he was wearing a Santa suit instead.

“I thought it would be appropriate,” Laura laughed as Steve put it on. “Here, Wanda, catch”

Laura threw the jumper and Wanda waved her hand and red lights gently allowed it float into her hands. Wanda grinned at it. The design was of a penguin wearing a Santa hat. “Thanks Mom,” she said as she put it on.

“Why does she get one that looks nice?” Clint complained.

“Because the women’s department doesn’t have as many stupid ones as the men’s”. Laura thrust the bag at Steve. “That one is for Scott. He’s upstairs, go give it to him”. Steve nodded and he went upstairs to find Scott. “Hey Sam, could you come in here for a second?” Laura called.

“Is there a problem?” Sam asked as he walked into the room. He barely managed to catch the jumper as Laura threw it to him. He unfolded it and glared at Laura. He didn’t say anything just pulled on the turkey jumper.

“Is that a bird costume?” Steve asked. Laura didn’t say anything, just grinned. Before anyone else who could say anything, a loud whooping came from upstairs. Everyone stared at the ceiling in confusion, before they heard the sound of Scott running down the stairs. He burst into the living room, a wild grin on his face.

“This is the best Christmas jumper ever,” he declared. It was fluffy and white, with three big back buttons and brown arms, like a snowman.

“That’s not even the best part,” Laura laughed. She reached over and pressed a small button on the collar and Frosty the Snowman started playing. Scott grinned and started singing along. Lila came running into the room and began to sing along and dance with him. Clint sighed. It was going to be a long Christmas.

 

** 9th of December **

Laura burst into the house after school in a panic. Wanda, who was sat reading in the living room, snapped her book closed and stared at Laura.

“What’s going-”

“Get everyone upstairs, now!” Laura shouted over her. Wanda leapt to her feet and ran to the kitchen. She dashed back moments later, dragging Clint and Sam along with her. Steve and Scott appeared at the top of the stairs to see what was going on.

“Wrong way! Turn around,” Wanda screamed at the two of them. She charged back up the stairs and the five of them sprinted to Wanda’s room. No sooner than they’d gotten there, they heard the sounds of several cars pulling up. Clint’s burner phone buzzed in his pocket, he pulled it out and read the text. He sighed.

“Laura’s been roped into hosting the PTA Christmas ‘party’” he groaned. The others looked at him in worry at the sound of a couple of hundred children turning up at the farm. “And by party, I mean a few of the moms sit around, drink wine and gossip without the kids there, they have the actual party at the school. It’s basically just a meeting that they call a party so they can have wine. Laura only really goes because Tina needs her help to keep Stephanie under control”

“Why can’t they have the meeting, sorry, I mean party at school?” Steve asked

Clint stared at him. “Did you not hear the part about the wine?”

“So, what you’re saying is that we have to hide up here and listen to the town gossip from Stephanie for the next couple of hours?” Scott asked. “Because that sounds great”

“Just wait until they get to the topic of us Tic-Tac,” Sam said, placing his hand on Scott’s shoulder. “Because that will not be pretty”. Scott sighed and assumed his normal position on the floor, grabbing one of the car magazines he kept stashed in there for times like this. He chucked a couple across the room for Sam to read and Steve grabbed a book off the shelf. Wanda pulled the chess board from underneath her bed and she Clint sat themselves at either end of the bed and began to set the chess board up, all the while listening to the gossip from downstairs.

***

It had been almost an hour by the time the topic of the avengers was finally brought up. Clint hushed the others and they all stared at the floor. The voices of the women rose up from the floor below.

“I just think that the news footage would’ve been a lot more fun to watch if Thor had been there,” said a voice that the others did not recognise. Everyone stared at Clint, who just shook his head in exasperation.

He wasn’t the only one who seemed fed up with this woman. “Seriously Susan, this weird stalker obsession with Thor is probably why Gareth left you,” quipped a voice that was all too familiar to Wanda. A few people downstairs choked on their drinks.

“Stephanie,” Tina Smith hissed. “What is wrong with you?”

“There is nothing wrong with me,” Stephanie replied. “And there is nothing wrong with Susan either. It is perfectly normal for a person to have a slight obsession with an Avenger, I mean, have you seen them? I myself admit to having a little crush on Captain America”. Steve turned bright red from embarrassment at her statement. “And I know for certain that one person in this room loves an Avenger, right Laura?”. Upstairs, everyone was having to muffle their laughter, pillows having been chucked around the room for them to laugh into. Clint could imagine Laura shifting awkwardly at the table.

“Speaking of people having crushes on Avengers, have you heard about Eliza’s eldest and that Scarlet Witch girl-”. Stephanie was cut off by the sound of a chair scraping against the floor.

“This has been lovely, it really has, but it’s getting on a bit and I have some work to get done before I pick the kids up from school,” Laura said, over the top of the other’s protesting the abrupt end to the ‘party’. “I’ll see you all later”

Clint watched through the crack in Wanda’s blinds as she herded them all outside and back to the cars they came in. Wanda joined him and the two of them watched as the cars disappeared on the road into the woods and out of sight. A few seconds later, Laura came into the room, a look of annoyance on her face.

“They’ve gone at last,” she said with a sigh. “The coast is clear”

“Finally,” Sam shouted as he shoved his way out of the door. “I need the bathroom”. The others watched as dashed down the hall, the thud of the bathroom door shutting shaking the walls of the whole house.

“But I needed the bathroom,” Scott whined. Wanda didn’t say anything, just opened the door to the small ensuite bathroom and quickly shut it behind Scott once he’d run in. She shook her head and headed out of the room, Steve following her. Clint listened as the he heard the two of them walk downstairs and flop down on the sofas. Clint turned to look at his wife.

“When did our lives get so weird?” he asked her. She shrugged.

“Probably when you became a secret agent for S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“Or maybe it was when I joined a group of superheroes and saved the world from aliens”

“Or maybe it was when you took part in a superhero civil war”. Clint grinned down at his wife and pressed a quick kiss to her lips before grabbing her hand and dragging her downstairs after Wanda and Steve.

 

 

** 10th of December **

After Wanda got ill a week before, Laura wasn’t taking any chances. The snow was coming down fast, so much coming down at once that even Clint had trouble seeing any further than a few feet in front of him outside. There was no way that Laura was letting her children go outside while the weather was like that. That was how Lila was sat at the window when she saw the headlights pierce through the snow as the van emerged from the woods.

“Mom,” she yelled. “Someone’s here”

Instantly, Steve, Scott and Sam were racing up the stairs and towards Wanda’s room. Wanda hung back on the stairs and waited for Clint to catch up with her. Clint ran to her, but Laura caught his arm before he could.

“The proximity alarm didn’t go off,” she stated, her eyes showing how worried she was that somebody may have been able to bypass all of their security systems.

“Don’t worry,” he told her. “It probably just got damaged during by the snow. I’ll check it in the morning”. He pressed a kiss to her head. “Kids, come with me,” he called back before heading up stairs, pushing Wanda ahead of him. Laura watched as Lila and Cooper ran after their Dad, thankful that Nathaniel was still asleep upstairs.

There was a knock at the door. Laura braced herself before opening the door. On the other side stood four adults and a little girl, all wrapped up in several layers of clothing.

“Can I help you?” Laura asked politely. The woman at the front pushed down her hood, short black hair falling out.

“We were sent your address,” she said, pulling a letter out of her pocket and held it out. “It said that we could find Scott Lang here”. Laura’s breath hitched as she took the letter from her outstretched hand. She read the letter, blocking the door so they couldn’t get in.

“This just says that you can find Scott Lang here, nothing else,” Laura said. “How do I know I can trust you?”

The woman held out an envelope. “This was inside the envelope with the letter”. The envelope hadn’t been opened and the words ‘give to Laura when she doesn’t trust you’. She opened it and pulled out a photo from a polaroid. On the back, someone had scrawled the words ‘thought Cassie would want to see her Dad before Christmas’. Laura turned the photo over and smiled. Nat was holding the camera out at arms-length and was grinning at the camera. Bruce had his arms wrapped around her. Laura couldn’t see his face as it was buried in Nat’s red curls, which was now just past shoulder length.

Laura looked back up at them. “Well, come in then,” she said as she ushered them in. “Hang your coats up over there and then come into the living room. I’ll be back down in a minute”. Laura dashed upstairs and burst into Wanda’s room. Clint leapt up to his feet and rushed over to his wife, knocking chess pieces over as he went.

“Laura, is something wrong?” he asked. Laura shook her head and Clint visibly relaxed.

“Scott, could you go downstairs for me?” she asked in the sweetest possible way. Scott gave her a confused look before heading downstairs. Clint opened his mouth to speak, but she shushed him. After a few seconds of silence, the sound of people laughing came suddenly from downstairs. Laura grinned. “Looks like he found our guests”. Laura walked back out the room, waiting only a few seconds before she heard the others follow her.  When she got back to the living room, Scott was stood by the tree, Cassie scooped up in his arms. She had her head buried in Dad’s neck and Scott was crying softly into her hair.

“H-how?” Scott stammered out, looking round at the two groups stood in the room.

“It was Nat,” Laura told him. “She sent them our address. She thought Cassie would want to see you before Christmas”. Scott didn’t know how to react, never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that the Black Widow would be sending the address for a secret farmhouse he was staying in to his daughter. Then again, he never thought he’d be a superhero. Cassie squirmed slightly in his grasp and Scott gently lowered her to the floor. He kept one hand on her shoulder and she leant against her Dad’s leg as the others came into the room. The woman that Laura had spoken to was the first person to speak.

“My name is Hope van Dyne. This is my father, Dr Hank Pym,” she introduced, pointing to where an older man was stood, looking as if he wished he was anywhere else. “That’s Maggie and Paxton”. She gestured to a couple stood to one side. “And that’s Cassie”. Cassie grinned at everyone from where she was stood. Lila poked her head round from where she was stood behind Clint.

“Hi,” she said. “I’m Lila Barton, nice to meet you”

Cassie stared between Lila and Clint for a second. “Wait, your Dad’s a superhero?”

“Yep,” Lila grinned. “And Uncle Scott is a superhero too”

“Best friends?” Cassie asked.

“Best friends,” Lila said. The two girls ran towards each other and met each other in the middle of the room, hugging each other.

“Why couldn’t you settle your stupid superhero war like that?” Laura questioned. “You’re a superhero, I’m a superhero! Yay! Friends!”. Clint mock glared at his wife, who just smirked back at him before walking into the kitchen to get drinks for everyone.

“Erm, feel free to sit down everyone,” Clint said awkwardly. Lila dragged Cassie to the beanbags in the corner and the two girls sat down there with Cooper.

“Wanda, come sit here,” Lila called out before she could squish onto the sofa with Clint and the others. She approached the kids in the corner gently before carefully sitting down next to them. She smiled shyly at Cassie, worried at the little girl’s reaction to her. Lila, on the other hand, was ecstatic that her sister had come and sat with her. “This is my big sister Wanda Maximoff”

Cassie stared at Wanda, her eyes widening and let out a small gasp. “You’re Scarlet Witch?!” she exclaimed. Wanda nodded and Cassie clasped her hands together in excitement. “You’re my favourite Avenger! I went as you for Halloween!”. Wanda didn’t say anything, just turned and stared at Scott, who was squished into the armchair with Hope.

“Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that?” he mumbled, squirming under Wanda’s glare. Maggie passed Wanda her phone and Wanda couldn’t help but grin at the picture on the screen. Cassie was wearing black leggings with a red top and long red coat and had a small pumpkin shaped bucket overflowing with candy. She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Lucky, who came charging into the room from upstairs, barking as he went.

“You guys have a one eyed dog, that’s so cool. We have a pet ant,” Cassie told Lila. Laura stared at Scott.

“Don’t you think you’re taking the ant thing a little too far?” she asked.

“That’s not the best part,” Scott retaliated. “It’s like the size of Lucky”. He looked around at everyone staring at him in confusion. “Right so, it started about a year ago…”

***

Several hours, many exchanged stories, a loud crash from upstairs and a “LILA KATHERINE BARTON” later, the snow had stopped falling and the snow covered fields and woods shone beautifully in the moonlight. Cassie yawned, desperately fighting to keep her eyes open as she slouched further down into the beanbag. She had ended up sat on one side of Wanda, with Lila, who was also slowly falling asleep, curled up on the other side. Wanda had looped her arms around the two girls and Cooper had given up and fallen asleep behind her, sprawled out over the beanbags. Maggie looked at her daughter trying to stay awake. She sighed and nudged Paxton in the side. The two of them shared a look. As much as they both didn’t want it to, this day had to end and they had to head home, otherwise people would get suspicious.

“Cassie,” Paxton called. “I think it’s time we get going sweetheart”. Cassie looked at him for a second, before her eyes flicked over to Scott. The two of them stared at each other in complete silence for almost a whole minute before she charged across the room and into her father’s waiting arms. The two of them clung tight to each other, a damp patch forming on Scott’s shoulder as Cassie silently cried.

“I love you Daddy,” she whispered into his ear.

“I love you too peanut,” he whispered back, pressing a kiss to the side of her head. He stood, scooping Cassie up in his arms. He passed her over to Paxton, wo carried her out to the car. Maggie stopped to give Scott a quick hug, before following Paxton out to the car. Hope stood up from her seat and took a step towards Scott. She opened her mouth to say something, but her father spoke before she could.

“No, nope, noooo,” he said, waving his arms in front of his face. “I don’t want to see this. Let me get out of the door before anything happens. Nice seeing you Scott, well sorta. Thank you for having us Mrs Barton”. And with that he walked out of the door and towards the car. Everyone left in the house stared after him as he went.

“Is he-” Sam started.

“Yes, he’s always like that,” Scott finished for him. “With me at least”. Scott grabbed Hope by the hand and pulled her over to the corner of the room and away from the others. “Sorry for not being with you as much today”

“It’s okay, you wanted to see your daughter. It’s disappearing on us eight months ago that you need to be apologising for,” she scolded, poking him in the chest. Scott grimaced at her.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “How’s your suit coming along? Because, apparently, Tony Stark has predicted another possible apocalypse in 2018 and we could use your help then if that’s the case”

“Well, then it’s a good thing that’s it’s almost ready,” she told him with a grin.

“Hey Tic-Tac,” Sam yelled from the other side of the room. “Look above ya man”. Hope and Scott both looked above them to see a small piece of mistletoe was pinned into the wall above them. Scott smiled at Hope before leaning in to kiss her. They broke away after a few moments and she started towards the door.

“see ya around Wasp,” Scott called after her.

Hope turned back to grin at him. “You too Ant-Man”. She walked out of the door and into the car waiting outside. Scott raced over to the window and joined Sam, Steve, Wanda, Lila and Cooper to wave goodbye to them as they drove away. Clint and Laura stood together in the open doorway and watched as the car disappeared into the woods, the red lights slowly vanishing into the darkness.

“Who put the mistletoe up?” Laura asked Clint.

“Dunno,” he stammered. “Definitely wasn’t me”. Laura frowned at him as he did his best not to look guilty.

“That’s a shame, considering we’re stood right underneath some,” she whispered in his ear. She turned and began to walk away, but Clint grabbed her wrist and pulled her back, twirling her back into his arms.

“I noticed that to,” he whispered to her as he leant in to kiss his wife.    

 

 

** 11th of December **

“What made you think they would never find the presents? You hide them in the first closet in the house?” Laura questioned Clint as the hurriedly moved all of the kid’s hidden presents upstairs to a more secure hiding place.

“In my defence,” Clint protested. “I did put a sign on the door that said “No presents here, move along?”. I thought that would throw them off the scent”. Laura just stared at her husband as she stacked two sets of Avengers action figures alongside a Black Widow Barbie and replica of Thor’s hammer inside the closet. “Wait, where’s the rest?”

“Most of it is hidden in Wanda’s room,” Laura told him. “I got her to help me hide it a few days ago. Except for her present, that’s hidden under our bed”. Clint peered under the bed, and sure enough, a large box was laying, already neatly wrapped up with a bow on top. There was another box pushed to one side with the Avengers logo scruffily drawn on the side. Clint grabbed the box, pulling it out and setting it on the bed. He opened it up and stared at what was inside. There was a set of ornamental throwing knives, a Hulk plushie, several boxes of pop tarts and a toy Thomas the Tank Engine.

“Laura, who are these for?” Clint asked. Laura turned around, confused for a moment before she saw what he was holding.

“Oh, those are for Nat, Bruce, Thor and Tony. I was going to mail those out a few days ago, but I thought I’d send them out after Christmas, you know, in case they show up. I know they probably won’t, but you never know”. Clint nodded for a second, staring at each of the items in his hands.

“I get the others, but this?” he asked as he held the Thomas the Tank Engine up. “Why this?”

“Well you know how Steve had that letter sent to ‘Tony Stank’?”. Clint nodded before Laura continued with a grin on her face. “Tony the Stank Engine”. Her husband stared at her in complete silence for a few seconds, before bursting out in laughter.

“Tony the Stank Engine,” he laughed. “That’s hilarious. You’re good. That’s it, you’re on the team”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You’re mean and sarcastic towards the others. That’s all the qualifications that you need”

“That explains how you got on,” Laura muttered under her breath. A second later, she was hit square in the face by a pillow.

“Perfect shot. Every time,” Clint boasted. “That’s how I got on the team”

Laura rolled her eyes at her husband’s antics. “Okay Hawkeye, use that perfect aim of yours and chuck me that wrapping paper and then help me wrap these presents. They’re not going to wrap themselves you know”

Clint sighed and chucked her the wrapping paper, before setting himself down on the floor, quietly laughing at ‘Tony the Stank Engine’ as he went.

 

 

** 12th of December **

“What do you mean you’ve never seen the Grinch?” Lila asked in shock. Wanda and Steve looked at each other and shrugged.

“I’m from the forties and Wanda grew up in Eastern Europe, so neither of us had the Grinch when we were growing up,” Steve said.

“Or any Christmas movies,” Wanda added. Lila stared at the two of them in shocked silence for a few moments before racing off into the next room. She came dashing back a minute later, a large box in her arms. She dumped it at Wanda’s feet and yanked the lid off. “Is this a box full of Christmas movies?”

“Yep,” Lila said proudly. “And we’re watching all of them”

Steve frowned at the box. “I don’t know, that’s a lot of movies”

“We. Are. Watching. All. Of. Them,” Lila commanded. Steve flinched backwards from the little girl and Wanda snorted at his reaction. Steve may be a super soldier, but much like everyone else, he feared the wrath of Lila Barton. After all, she got it from her mother and Steve had been on the wrong end of that once and he never wanted to be ever again.

“Okay, so the Grinch first then?” Steve asked tentatively. Lila grinned and stuck the DVD into the machine before settling herself down between Wanda and Steve as the opening scene began to play.

***

Several hours later, Lila had gotten Steve and Wanda to watch the Grinch, Elf, Home Alone and Arthur Christmas. At some point, the others had joined them. They’d eaten dinner in front of the TV instead of at the table in the kitchen. Lila had curled herself up on Steve’s lap. Wanda had moved over to the smaller sofa and had been joined by Clint and Laura. Clint had one person curled up on either side of him. Sam and Scott were sat on the larger sofa and Cooper had dragged a beanbag over to between the two sofas and sat himself down there.

“I love that movie,” Lila whispered in the silence of the room. She slid of Steve’s lap and took the DVD out of the machine. She placed it back in its case and reached in the box to grab another DVD.

“Lila no,” Laura groaned, rubbing her eyes in exhaustion. “It’s time for a bed sweetie”. Lila pouted, before yawning. She sniggered innocently and grinned at Laura. Laura shot her a pointed look. Lila sighed and dragged herself out of the living room. “Cooper, you too”. Cooper threw the beanbag across the room, narrowly missing the Christmas tree, before following his sister out of the room. “He had to get your attitude instead of your aim, didn’t he?”

Clint turned to stare at his wife. “Did you just insult me and compliment me at the same time?”. Laura a grinned up at him as she reached him up to kiss him, but before they could, there was a loud thudding sound from Clint’s other side. The two of them looked over to see Wanda sprawled out on the floor between the sofa and coffee table. She glared up at the two of them, attempting to look stray with a piece of tinsel from the coffee table falling on her face.

“Mom! Dad! Did you forget I was there or something?” she shrieked. She leapt to her feet and sprinted out of the room and stormed upstairs towards her room. “You’re so embarrassing!”

“Night sweetie,” Laura called. Clint snickered and the others stifled their laughter. There was an awkward lull of silence.

“Night!” Wanda yelled back before slamming her door, the thud shaking the house slightly. Everyone else stared at each other in shock.

“Did that just happen?” Scott asked, breaking the silence.

“I think it did,” Steve replied. “Am I the only one who’s noticed that she’s been acting a bit off the last few days? She just hasn’t seemed like herself recently?”

“I noticed it too,” Sam added. “She’s been spending more time in her room and won’t talk to anyone as much”

Clint and Laura exchanged a worried look. Laura stood up. “I’m going to check on her”. She sped out of the room before anyone could say anything. She stuck her head round the younger kid’s bedroom doors quickly first, making sure they were all in bed, before making her way over to Wanda’s room. She knocked gently on the door before she slowly pushed it open. “Wanda, is something wrong, bec-”. She broke off mid- sentence. The room was dark, the lights off and the curtains drawn. It was only through the light spilling through the open door that she was able to see the shape of Wanda lying in her bed. Laura carefully backed out again, quietly closing the door. She stifled a yelp when she backed into someone.

“Laura, relax, it’s just me,” her husband reassured her. “What’s wrong?”. Laura looked over his shoulder and saw Sam, Scott and Steve hovering outside their room, eavesdropping on the conversation. Laura grabbed Clint by the wrist and pulled him into their room closing the door behind them. She flopped down onto their bed, resting her elbows on her knees and cradling her head in her hands.

“How didn’t we notice, Clint?” she asked in despair. “We were meant to be looking after her. She can’t be getting worse again, not after what happened earlier this year, it just can’t”. Clint crossed the room and sat down next to his wife, wrapping his arm around her side. She leaned into his embrace.

“What did she say?” he asked.

“She didn’t say anything, she was already asleep,” she sniffled. Clint looked down to see his wife’s eye red and puffy. He wiped away the tears.

“Look, there’s nothing we can do now. We’ll just have to wait until the morning. Until then, we get some sleep. I love you,” he muttered before he leaned down to kiss her.

“I love you too”

 

 

** 13th of December **

“ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU!” Scott belted out as he danced around the living room downstairs. Sam, who was still in bed, groaned. He just wanted a lie in, was that so much to ask? But no, Scott _had_ to be singing. Sam dragged himself out of bed and stalked down the stairs. He stomped into the living room and glared at him.

“Are you singing Mariah Carey?” he hissed through gritted teeth. “At this unholy hour? Did you even think about the children?”

Scott stared at Sam from where he was stood on the sofa between Clint and Laura, hairbrush microphone in his hand. “Sam, it’s half past ten. The kids are at school. The only person who appears to bothered by me is you”, he smirked, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Yeah, well you still look stupid,” Sam replied.

“Sam, the only one who looks stupid is you,” Steve called from the kitchen, where he was stood washing up. Sam turned and raised an eyebrow as he took in Steve’s appearance.

“Says the one wearing bright pink marigolds and who has somehow managed to get bubbles on the back of his head,” Sam pointed out. Steve went to wipe the bubbles off the back of his head, but only succeeded in getting more on. Laura bit her lip to stop her laughter. The momentary silence was broken by Scott, who decided that that was the perfect moment to start singing again.

“FELIZ NAVIDAD!” he ‘sang’. Sang was a bit of a loose term. Screaming was probably a more accurate description. Sam winced.

“That’s it!” came a cry from the corner. Sam yelped and jumped in shock, he hadn’t seen anyone sat there. Wanda stood from where she was curled up in the armchair, snapping her copy of Clockwork Angel closed. “I’ve had it with you”. She waked out of the room and stormed up the stairs. Clint leapt to his feet and began to follow her.

“Wanda, what’s wro- OW!” Clint was cut off by the sound of door slamming and the thud of a door hitting a person. Everyone exchanged worried glances at her sudden outburst. Clint came back into the living room, rubbing the left side of his face. Laura jumped up and went over to him.

“Are you okay?” she asked, leaning towards him. He nodded, pulling her closer and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. Scott was still stood on the sofa, hairbrush in hand. He cleared his throat and raised the hairbrush back up to his mouth.

“OH, I WISH IT COULD BE CHRISTMAS EVERY DAY!” he screeched. Before he could ‘sing’ the next line, a small cluster of red lights ripped it from his hands and tossed it to the other side of the room. Scott made a small whining sound and pouted. He went to go grab the hairbrush, but Sam put his arm out to stop him.

“Don’t,” he whispered. “Just don’t. Not unless you want to die”. Scott considered this, before stepping away from the hairbrush. “Wise move Tic-Tac”.

 

 

** 14th of December **

Laura pushed the door open and propped it open with her foot as Lila and Cooper ran through. She gathered the shopping bags off the floor. She walked into the living room and towards the kitchen. She was about to set the bags down on the table when she realised what she’d just walked through. Backtracking for a second, she stopped and stared at the room.

Someone had covered every available surface that wasn’t already covered tinsel with a sheet of fake snow. There was a small train running along the window sill, with small fake trees decorating the sides and a miniature train station had been set up, complete with model people. The most noticeable was the giant inflatable Santa sitting in the armchair and the six-foot-tall Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer stood behind the chair.

“Clint, why does the house look like a freaking grotto?” she yelled. Clint came charging down the stairs and into the living room, grinning like a mad man.

“Do you like it?” he asked. “Steve and I were looking for some stuff in the attic and we found more decorations and thought we’d put them up”

“Is that the Polar Express?!” Laura exclaimed. Clint shrugged as Laura stared at everything in the room. “These all look kinda familiar. Where have I seen them before?”. Clint smirked at her.

“I got these decorations Christmas 2006,” he told her smugly, his hands shoved in his pockets as he closed the gap between them.

“There’s a story here, I can tell,” Sam’s voice came from the doorway. Laura and Clint yelped and jumped apart in shock, their cheeks burning bright red. Sam grinned as he looked back and forth between the two of them, who were acting like teenagers that had been caught by their parents. “Do tell”

“I’d just gotten back from work and our whole apartment looked like this,” Laura began. “And this idiot here just comes out of the corner and asks me if I’ve seen what Rudolph had: so obviously I’m really confused, so I went over to Rudolph and on one of his antlers, there was a ring”

Sam’s eyes widened as he realised what story they were telling him. “This is how Clint proposed?” he asked excitedly. Laura grinned and nodded. “Well, obviously you said yes”

Clint immediately spluttered out in laughter and his wife wasn’t doing much better than him. “No, that’s not what she said next,” Clint managed to get out through the laughing. He looked over at Laura, who was beginning to cry with laughter. “She just stared at me and yelled “I’M PREGNANT”. And that’s how I found out about Cooper”

Sam stared at the two of them in shock. “And?” he asked. “What happened next?”

“I would love to tell you,” Laura said. “But the children are in the house”. Sam stared at them speechless, before turning and dashing out of the room, leaving Clint and Laura in fits of laughter.

 

 

** 15th of December **

“Laura, is Lila meant to be doing that?” Scott asked. “You know what, I don’t think she is supposed to be doing that”. Laura sighed as she put down what she was doing to join Scott at the window.

“We have been home for all of-” she paused to look at her watch, “-ten minutes. What could she have possibly done now?”. She stopped when she reached the window and stared at Lila, before marching outside to deal with her daughter. “LILA KATHERINE BARTON, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

Lila looked up to her mom from where she was sat in a cardboard box, holding onto the two leads she’d attached to Lucky’s collar, who was sat in front of the box, the reindeer antlers on his head again. “I’m trying to have a sleigh ride, but Lucky doesn’t want to cooperate”

Laura stared at her daughter in shock. “That’s because he’s a dog! Get out of the box and go find your dad”. Laura bent down to Lila’s level. “I have a better idea”. Lila grinned at her and dashed back into the house, yelling for Clint. Laura began to walk towards the barn and Scott hurried after her.

“What are we doing?” he asked as Laura opened the barn doors. She walked inside and beckoned Scott after her.

“We’ll just use one of the horses instead,” she called back over her shoulder.

Scott froze in the doorway, staring at the five horses in their stalls in front of him. “Wait, you guys have horses?”. Laura turned back to look at him in confusion.

“Scott, you have been here seven months. Clint, Sam and Steve took them out to the fields very morning and brought them back in again every evening all summer and half of autumn. There are several hay bales outside and a truck arrives every week with horse feed. How did you not know we have horses?” she demanded. Scott just stared at the horses in stunned silence. “Scott, you still with me?”

“Yeah,” he muttered, still staring at the horses. By this point the others had come out of the house and caught up with Laura and Scott. Scott turned and looked at Sam. “Horses,” he whispered, pointing back into the barn.

Sam placed his hand on Scott’s shoulder. “Well done Tic-Tac,” he said as if talking to a baby. “You know animals. Lila mentioned something about a sleigh ride, so I’m guessing you guys have a sleigh hidden back there”

“It’s not quite a sleigh exactly,” Laura told them as she pulled a sheet off the top of the ‘sleigh’. Steve stared at in mild shock for a moment before being able to speak again.

“Is that one of those Chitauri flying things? Like one of the ones Loki was flying around New York on?” he stammered. Clint nodded. “Did you steal Chitauri tech from S.H.I.E.L.D. for the sole purpose of using it as a sleigh?”

“No, Nick Fury stole Chitauri tech from S.H.I.E.L.D. for the sole purpose of using it as a sleigh,” Clint explained. Steve seemed to take this as an acceptable answer.

“Could you lot help me take this outside, and Clint, can you tack up Elsa?” Laura asked.

“Elsa?” Scott asked. “You have a horse named Elsa?”

“We got her and another one the year Frozen came out,” Clint explained. “We let Lila and Cooper name them. The other one is called Sonic the Hedgehog”

“Kids do name things very weirdly,” Scott observed. “We have a pet ant about the size of a dog. And Cassie named it butterfly”

“Come talk to me when you’ve got a toy Dalmatian Stripey,” Clint countered.

“Don’t forget the dog who lost an eye after getting hit by a car called Lucky,” Scott called to Clint as he helped the others carry the ‘sleigh’ into the snow. Clint grinned at them as he placed the bridle on Elsa, clipping the antlers on top.

 

 

** 16th of December **

The boys were sat around the TV in the living room when Laura got home from school. She stared at the TV for a second in confusion, as Lila and Cooper charged upstairs.

“Is that Shrek the Halls?” she asked.

“Yep. I made Steve watch all of the Shrek films last year because he’d never heard of them before,” Sam explained.

“But he forgot Shrek the Halls, so obviously we had to show it to him now,” Clint added. Laura looked around at who was in the room.

“Where’s Wanda?” she asked. “Has she left her room again?”

“Not since lunch,” Clint sighed. “And anyone who tries to go near her gets a door in the face”

“I’m going to try to talk to her,” Laura said. she headed up the stairs and tip-toed down the hallway to Wanda’s room. She didn’t bother to knock, just walked right in. Wanda was curled on her side on her bed, staring at the wall. “Wanda, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she spat out. Laura heard Wanda’s voice crack and her heart broke. She ducked back out of the room for a second and grabbed Lila and Cooper as they went past.

“You two go downstairs and send your dad up, okay?” she told them as she bent down to their level. They nodded and dashed off. Laura stepped back into the room and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Wanda, come on, sit up”. Wanda sat up and scooted away from Laura. She sniffled as she wiped a few stray tears off her face. A few seconds later, Clint knocked on the door and walked in.

“Lila said you wanted me,” he said as he came in. He saw Wanda, her face red, eyes puffy and face stained by tear tracks, and sped over to sit down next to her immediately pulling her into a hug. “Wanda, what’s wrong?”. She didn’t say anything, just shook her head as Clint held her tight. “Come on, we can’t do anything to help you until you tell us what’s wrong”

Wanda was silent for a few moments before she spoke. “Pietro”. The second she said her brother’s name, Clint couldn’t help but feel like an idiot. Of course she was missing the only family she had had for years in the run up to the holidays. And Clint couldn’t help but feel like it was his fault, the kid had gotten himself killed saving him after all. He squeezed his eyes shut and pulled the now sobbing girl closer to himself.

Laura leaned over to the pair and clasped Wanda’s hands in her own. “You listen to me: it is perfectly okay to miss your brother. He was your only family and he’s gone and that’s terrible. But you can’t do this to yourself. It’s not good for you, shutting yourself away from everyone else. It isn’t going to make anything easier for you, only worse. Just because your birth family is gone, that doesn’t mean you don’t still have one, because you do. And they are downstairs and they are worried about you. We all are. Even if you don’t do it for yourself, do it for your brother. For Pietro”. Wanda’s eyes snapped up and met Laura’s when she mentioned Pietro. “He wouldn’t want you to be miserable, he’d want you to be happy. You don’t have to right away, but please, just come back downstairs. To everyone else. Don’t shut us out”.

Wanda thought about what she’d said for a few moments before nodding. “I’ll be downstairs soon,” she promised.

Laura grinned at her. “We’ll see you there”. She and Clint stood up from the bed and headed out the rom and down the stairs.

“You’re amazing, you know that right?” Clint asked her.

“I know”

***

“Hey guys, did you see what today was?” Sam asked as Clint and Laura came back into the living room.

“No,” Laura said. “Why, is it something important?”

Sam cleared his throat. “Mission report, December 16, 1991,” he said in the worst Sokovian accent the others had ever heard.

“Don’t let Wanda ever hear you talk with that accent,” Steve ordered.

“Too late, I already did,” Wanda announced as she walked into the room. She went over to where Lila and Cooper were sat on the beanbags and threw herself down. “But it was terrible”

 

 

** 17th of December **

When Wanda was woken by a weird noise outside, it was ten to six in the morning. The noise was coming from outside and it sounded like someone was shovelling around in the snow directly below her window. Wanda stuck her head out of the window and looked at whatever was going on.

“Scott, what are you doing?” she shouted.

Scott looked up at her from where he was stood in the snow, building some kind of fortress, with a large pile of snowballs behind him. “I promised Lila and Cooper a snowball fight and I must be ready,” he yelled back. “FOR I AM THE SNOWBALL CHAMPION”

“It’s not even six yet,” she called back in exasperation.

The window for the next room opened up and Laura’s head stuck out, her crazy bed head causing her hair to stick out at all angles in a tangled mess. “What are you yelling about?” she hissed. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“I do,” Wanda said, waving her hand out of the window. “That’s why I’m yelling at him”. She pointed at Scott, who was still building the snow fortress.

“Scott, what?” Laura asked. “Just, what? I have no other words for you right now”

“Thine spawn hath challenged me to a war of snow balls,” Scott declared in an overly dramatic old English accent.

“It is too early in the morning for long words in modern English, let alone old English,” Laura moaned. “Speak normally. In as few and short words as possible”

“Lila. Cooper. Snowball fight. I shall win,” he declared at the top of his lungs. Laura didn’t say anything, just slid back through the window. Wanda could hear the sound of her throwing herself back onto her bed through the walls. A few moments later, Clint stuck his head out the window and stared at Scott. After about a minute, he turned and looked at Wanda.

“I didn’t believe your mom, I had to see for myself,” he told Wanda, looking her dead in the eye, before going back inside, closing the window as he went.

The window to the other side of Wanda, another window opened. Sam stuck his head and arm out of the window, armed with a book in his hand. He lobbed the book down at Scott. It collided with the wall of the snow fort and half the wall toppled down as book went through the snow.

“NOT MY SNOW FORT,” Scott screeched.

“SHUT UP TIC-TAC!” Sam screamed before slamming the window.

Scott turned to Wanda and put on his sweetest smile “You’re still with me right Wanda?” he asked. Wanda didn’t say anything, just waved her hand and all the snow slid off the roof and straight onto Scott’s head. He squawked in shock as all the snow landed on top of him. Wanda closed the window and got back into bed. It was too early in the morning to be dealing with Scott.

 

** 18th of December **

It was late at night when the knock at the door came. The kids were already in bed and the adults were watching TV. They didn’t have time to run up the stairs without being seen, so everyone ended up hiding in weird places. Wanda and Clint were hidden under the sofas. Sam was hidden between the tree and the giant Rudolph. Scott was buried under the beanbags. Steve had the weirdest hiding place, hidden in a gap between the wall and fridge. Laura apprehensively approached the door, a gun hidden behind her back. She unlocked the door and open it a crack. When she saw who was on the other side, she immediately dropped the gun and threw the door open and launched herself at them.

“You guys can come out now,” she called to the hidden superheroes as she ushered them in. Clint was crawling out from underneath the sofa when one of the new arrivals spoke to him.

“Under the sofa? Really Barton? I thought you were a better spy than that,” she said.

Clint’s head snapped up and he locked eyes with the redhead staring at him. “Nat?!” he squeaked in shock. He finished dragging himself out from under the sofa and ran over to Nat, sweeping her up into a hug, her feet leaving the floor. She mouthed the words help me at Laura and Bruce, who were both still stood by the door.

“Put me down right now Barton,” Nat laughed as she hugged him back. “But seriously, put me down now”. As Clint set her back down on the ground, Bruce came up behind her and wrapped his arm around her side as she leant back against him.

“What are you guys doing here?” Steve asked as he climbed out from the gap between the fridge and the wall. “Not that we’re not happy to see you, but why did you come? Surely it would’ve been safer for you to just stay put”

“Well, it’s Christmas,” Nat said. “Where else would we go?”

“To help your friend out from behind a tree,” Sam called, his voice muffled through the branches of the tree. Scott threw the beanbags off himself and clambered over to Sam and helped him out. Laura felt someone tap her ankle. She looked down and saw Wanda’s hand sticking out from under the sofa. She bent down and helped Wanda pull herself out from under the sofa.

“How long are you planning on staying for?” Laura asked Bruce and Nat. The two of them exchanged a look for a moment.

“We hoping on staying for the actual day,” Bruce said.

“You’re going to be here for Christmas?” Lila cried from the doorway. Nat nodded at her and the little girl charged at her for a hug.

“Lila Katherine Barton, you are meant to be in bed,” Laura exclaimed. Lila didn’t say anything, just shrugged innocently at her mother. Wanda walked over and grinned at her little sister.

“Like mom said, bed,” she told her. Lila sighed and wriggled free from Nat’s grip.

“See you all in the morning,” she called as she skipped out of the room.

Laura turned to look at Bruce and Nat. “Neither of you ask where her Elsa dress is, we’ve managed to hide it,” she told them. The two of them nodded, Nat fully understanding the seriousness of the situation.

“We have one small problem: where are you going to sleep?” Clint pointed out. “We’ve already got nine people upstairs”

“We can take the sofa bed if that makes it any easier,” Nat offered.

Laura grabbed Clint and dragged him out of the room. “We’ll go get the bed sheets for you,” Laura called back to them as she dragged her husband up the stairs.

“Why do you need me?” he whispered as they snuck past the children’s rooms.

Laura turned and stared her husband down. “Because I can’t reach the sheets and you don’t know where they are”

“I know where they are,” he said as he pushed open the door to their room. “They’re in our closet”

Laura cleared her throat as she pushed open Wanda’s door. “They’re in here”

***

A few minutes later, the two of them were walking back into the living room, where the coffee table had already been pushed back and the sofa bed unfolded. Laura handed the sheets to Nat, while Clint dumped the quilt and pillows on the sofa bed.

“Hey Nat, if I’d asked you to get these, would you have known where to get them?” Laura asked.

“The closet in Wanda’s room,” she replied. “Why? Clint didn’t know?”

“Clint didn’t know”

Wanda snorted. “Really Dad? I could’ve told you that”

“I don’t think I like that attitude young lady,” Clint said, pretending to be cross. “Go to your room”

“Do you want me to get you some sheets while I’m there?” she asked before leaping from her seat and running out of the room.

Clint glared at her as she ran out. “I should be mad,” he muttered. “But that was really good”

The others nodded, letting a comfortable silence settle over the room, before Scott yawned loudly. “I think it’s time for me to go to bed, I pretty tired,” Scott admitted. The others nodded in agreement. Everyone stood up and began to say goodnight. Clint was the last to say goodnight to Nat.

“I’m really glad you came,” he whispered in her ear as he hugged her tight.

“So am I,” she whispered back, before letting him go.

Clint grinned at her before following Laura out of the room and up the stairs.

“I think this is going to be a good Christmas,” Bruce said to Nat.

She turned and grinned at him, walking over and wrapping her arms around him. “No, I think this is going to be the best Christmas yet,” she told him, before pulling him down for a kiss.

 

 

** 19th of December **

Bruce was awkwardly pacing the hallway at the top of the stairs, waiting for Laura to get home from taking Lila and Cooper to school. He'd asked her if he could talk to her and Clint in private when she'd gotten back. From downstairs, he could hear the TV playing yet another Christmas film that Clint, Scott and Sam were forcing Steve and Wanda to watch and Nat playing with Nathaniel, her little namesake. It had been his idea for them to sneak back into the country and travel up from the coast to Waverly, Iowa. Nat had been ecstatic at the idea of being back here for Christmas, and after weeks of planning, they'd been able to pull it off. This Christmas was going to be perfect. At least, if he was able to pull this next bit off.

***

As soon as Laura got back into the house, she dragged her husband from the living room and upstairs to where she'd left Bruce pacing earlier. He was still there walking back and forth over the same small patch of carpet.

"Okay," she announced as she dragged Clint past Bruce and into their room. "What was it you wanted to talk about?"

Bruce followed them inside and continued his pacing in there.

“Bruce, please stop with the pacing,” Laura said. “You’re making me nervous and you really don’t need to be”

“Yeah,” Clint agreed. “We’re not going to kill you or anything”

Bruce managed to stop the pacing and the three of them sat down on the bed, Bruce facing Clint and Laura. He bit the inside of his lip nervously, trying to think of what to say. After a few moments, he gave up and reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black box and placed it down in the space between him and the others. Clint and Laura stared at the box in shocked silence for a few moments, before Laura reached over and grabbed the box. She opened it up and gasped at what was inside. Inside lay a ring. A large red stone was nestled between two smaller greens ones on a silver band.   
  
Laura stared at Bruce, a grin on her face. "Are you going to propose to Nat?" she asked him.  
  
"That's what I came to talk to you about," he explained. "I know none of us are exactly the most normal people, but it's tradition to get the blessing of her family before you propose. And you two are her family. You were the ones who took her in and taught her that she could have a normal life after the Red Room and the KGB. So, that's why I came to you two"  
  
Laura grinned in excitement, but Clint was sat with his arms crossed and was staring Bruce down. "When do you intend on proposing to Nat?"  
  
"On Christmas day," he said, shifting uncomfortably under Clint's glare. Laura whacked her husband on the arm.   
  
"You have my blessing, but I swear, of you ever hurt her, I will end you," he warned. He waved his hand in the general direction of Bruce and the door. "You're free to go"  
Bruce scampered out of the room, closing the door behind him. Clint waited until he heard Bruce head down the stairs before he turned to Laura, grinning.  
  
"Nat's gonna get engaged," he squealed. Laura hit his arm again. "What was that for?"  
  
"Was that really necessary?" she demanded. "Did you have to be so mean to him?"  
  
"Yes, I had to put the fear of God in him so would never try anything stupid"  
  
Laura sighed. "You and I know perfectly well that Nat is completely capable of doing that by herself"  
  
"I know," Clint said. He jumped up from the bed and grabbed Laura's hand, pulling her up with him. "Come on, they're watching Nativity without us"

 

 

** 20th of December **

The second Laura left to take the kids to school, Nat threw three bags in Scott, Sam and Steve’s faces. The three of them stared at her in confusion.

“Well open them then,” Nat demanded.

Steve was the first to open the bag. He pulled out a Santa outfit and glared at Nat over the top of the bag. “Thanks, you shouldn’t have”

Nat rolled her eyes at him and pulled a small camera out of her bag. “I’m going to hide this in the tree, record you dressed as Santa and I’m going to show it to the kids on Christmas morning and tell them that I recorded it the night before and that’s actual footage of Santa bringing them their presents”. She turned to Sam and Scott. “And you two are going to be his elves”

***

The boys came downstairs a few minutes later, sulking in their new Christmasy outfits. Between them, Nat, Bruce, Clint and Wanda had completely covered the windows with blackout material, making it seem like it was the dead if night and not ten to nine on a Tuesday morning.

“Here’s the plan,” Nat began. “Bruce and I are going to go back to bed and pretend to be asleep. You three are going to start over there, off camera, and walk over to the tree, put the presents under and walk away. Then I’ll turn the camera off, we hide the presents and take the blackout blinds down and I show the kids the footage on Christmas day and say it was from the night before”

“And we can take these stupid outfits off,” Scott added.

Nat looked at them thoughtfully for a moment. “Or maybe you can keep them on,” she said with a hint of venom in her voice. Scott flinched at her tone.

“But that will ruin it for Lila and Cooper,” Steve pointed out.

“Maybe you can just take them off when Laura goes to get them,” Wanda suggested. The three of them glared at her, while Clint just high-fived his daughter instead.

Wanda nestled the camera on the sofa opposite the tree and she and Clint ducked out of sight in the doorway, flicking the lights off as they went. Nat and Bruce clambered back into bed and pretended to be asleep. They heard Nat click the remote control button that activated the camera and the three men headed across the room and began to place the presents under the tree. Once they were done, they headed back across the room, careful not to look at the camera so Lila and Cooper wouldn’t recognise them. Nat switched the camera off and Wanda turned the lights back on. She locked eyes with Nat across the room and the two of them burst out in laughter. It wasn’t long before Bruce and Clint were also laughing.

“Ha ha, very funny,” Sam moaned. “Now let’s get these presents back upstairs so that I can take this stupid outfit off”

“Oh, there is no chance in hell that you are taking that off,” Nat replied. Sam didn’t respond, he valued his life. He just sighed, before dragging the bag of presents upstairs.  
**21 st of December**

When Laura arrived back from picking the kids up from school, her husband was stood sheepishly on the porch. This could only mean one thing; something weird had happened. Of course it had. He carefully approached her as Lila and Cooper charged past him and into the house. 

"Just tell me what it is," she started as she got Nathaniel from his car seat. "I'm too tired to care about whatever crazy thing has happened now"

Before he had the chance to talk, Lila cane charging back out of the house. "Mom!" she yelled. "Uncle Thor's here!"

"That," Clint put simply, pointing to Lila. Laura breathed a sigh of relief. At least their unexpected house guest was only Thor and not Secretary Ross. "But-". No, not but anything but but. "He heard about Bruce and Nat staying here for Christmas and now I think he wants to as well"

"Barn," Laura demanded. Clint just stared at her confused. "Go and get one of those flat pack beds that Tony bought last year, so that, quote, 'I never have to share a bed with Rogers ever again'. That's where we got the bunk beds and the single bed for Sam, Scott and Steve from"

Clint nodded and headed off to the barn to fetch one of the beds to set up for Thor. Laura followed her daughter back into the house and was immediately swept up into a bone crushing hug by the god of thunder.

"Lady Barton," he laughed as he set back down on the floor. "It is good to see you and your family again. And I must thank you for allowing me to stay with you this Christmas. It is an honour. If there is anything I can do to help, just let me know"

"You can help me get this is," Clint yelled, as he dragged the flat pack bed through the front door. Without looking up from her book, Wanda waved her hand and the bed rose up and floated into the other room. "Thank you. I'll go set this up". Clint disappeared into the other room.

For the rest of the evening, everyone (except Clint, who was still attempting to construct the flat pack) sat around and swapped stories of what had happened since they'd all last been together, the occasional sound of Clint swearing at the flat pack heard as the shortest day of the year drew to a close.

 

** 22nd December **

There had already been many visitors to the farmhouse, from the so called Young Avengers to what felt like half of the town’s population in the run up to Christmas. But if there were two visitors that they hope they’d never see. But, of course, they had to show up.

Once again, the ever growing group of superheroes were saved by the proximity alarm. Everyone managed to cram into Wanda’ room, Clint and Wanda now sharing the bed with Bruce and Nat. Thor had joined Scott on the floor. Steve and Sam had managed to keep the sofa to themselves.

“Well this is comfortable,” Clint commented. Wanda elbowed her dad in the side. From the floor, Thor snickered.

“Do you have any idea who it could be?” Steve asked.

“No idea, but, hopefully it won’t be-”. He was cut off from a shrill hello from downstairs. “-my in-laws, who are here. Right now. I shouldn’t have opened my mouth”

“No,” Nat agreed, earning a glare from Clint. “That never ends well for us”

"So what do we do now?" Bruce asked.

"Now we wait," Clint said.

Nat raised one eyebrow at him. "So that's what you guys do?" she asked. "Sit around and wait?"

"Not always, sometimes we end up performing mission impossible style runs downstairs," Wanda pointed out.

"Yeah, and pretend to be Harry Potter," Scott added. Nat, Bruce and Thor stared at him in stunned silence, not sure what to say.

***

They spent the next three hours flicking through magazines, reading books and silently arguing over who's turn it was to use the chess set. The conversation downstairs flitted between what the kids had been doing in school, to Laura's sister (she didn't marry an Avenger, you know?) and Laura's brother (being arrested for drug production is not as being arrested for breaking into the Avengers' compound, travelling on a fake passport and fighting half the Avengers with the other half of the Avengers) before the conversation finally turned to the Avengers. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to listen.

"Listen honey," Laura's dad, Victor, began. “I’m not blaming you for any of what happened with those blasted Avengers, but I do feel that you didn’t really help with the whole situation”

Laura choked on her drink. “What do you mean by that?” she asked. “of course I wasn’t that much help in superhero v superhero fight. I’m not a superhero!”

“No no no, dear,” her mother, Lucinda, interjected. “That’s not what your father meant at all. We were talking about all of this in the car on the way here and you did mention to us once about Romanoff being rather close to the children”

“What does that have to do with any of this? Nat was on the other side,” Laura pointed out. “And we haven’t seen her in months, she’s still at the compound, remember?”. She carefully dodged the fact that there had been no official statement about Nat leaving the compound months ago, and as the Avengers had still had no missions, nobody outside of the compound had even noticed her absence.

“Well it wasn’t just her,” Lucinda argued. “What about that Maximoff girl? You know, the one who killed all those people in Lagos?”

A tense silence fell over both rooms. “What about her?” Laura spat out through gritted teeth. “And what happened in Lagos wasn’t her fault. She was trying to get rid of a suicide bomber and couldn’t contain the explosion. She didn’t kill those people, Rumlow did”

“Okay, we won’t mention Lagos anymore,” Victor interrupted, before Laura and Lucinda got into a fight. “But she was here last Christmas, wasn’t she?”

“Dad, I really fail to see where this is going,” Laura put plainly.

“If you hadn’t had her here and encouraged your useless husband to get so close to her, then he never would’ve gotten involved and would still be here,” Victor all but shouted. “After all, the official report for what happened is saying that the first thing he did that they know of was him breaking her out of the compound”

“And I was just beginning to like him,” Lucinda protested. “And then he went and left you and the kids all alone for what? Some girl who’s young enough to be your daughter”

Upstairs, everyone froze. Nobody was sure quite how to react. Was this what the rest of the world thought had happened? Because, if it was, then that was pretty ironic.

“I’m sorry, what?” Laura spluttered.

“You heard me,” Lucinda replied. “He left you for and the children for someone who is practically still a child themselves. Can you imagine how the kids feel about this?”

“Please don’t bring us into this Granny,” Cooper begged.

“It was my idea,” Laura hissed at her mother.

“I don’t quite understand what you mean darling,” Victor said. “It couldn’t have possibly have been your idea for your husband to run off with some mistress”. The superheroes hidden upstairs were beginning to recover from their shock at what Victor was saying. Everyone was shooting confused looks around the room, not quite sure if they were really hearing this.

“Wanda was never a mistress,” Laura explained. “And your right, she is still a child. A child who has lost everything, her whole family. And that’s why it was my idea for Clint to go and get her and to bring her back here so that she could have a chance of a normal life with a family that would look after her. He never saw her a mistress and I never saw her as competition, we only ever saw her like we see Cooper, Lila and Nathaniel, as our child. And yes, things did not go to plan, but don’t ever for one moment blame her”

Both Victor and Lucinda were too stunned to speak for a moment. Unfortunately, that moment didn’t last very long.

“Well, I don’t care what you have to say in that girl’s defence, she’s clearly gotten inside your head and messed around in there,” Lucinda spat back at her daughter. “After hearing that nonsense, I’m glad that girl, your husband and the other two are still locked away in the raft”

Downstairs, the only sound was of a glass shattering as it hit the floor. Upstairs, nobody moved, no one knew what to say or do. Wanda began to curl in on herself and Clint pulled her close as she began to shake.

“Get. Out. Of. My. House,” Laura spat at her parents. “You don’t get to sit in my house and talk about my family like that and just get away with it”

There was the sound of people grabbing things and feet shuffling towards the door as Laura chucked her parents out.

“But Laura,” Lucinda protested. “We love you and your family, your real family, the kids. And we only want what’s best for you”

“If you really loved me and my family, then that would include my husband and my daughter as well,” Laura yelled, before slamming the door in their faces. Nat climbed off the bed and watched as their car drove away. A few moments later, the door was thrown open and a red faced Laura marched into the room. Quickly, everyone but Clint and Wanda scurried from the room. Nat, who was the last one out, closed the door behind her. Laura sat herself on the bed next to Wanda, who was now sandwiched between her parents.

“You know everything they said is wrong, don’t you?” Laura asked. Wanda didn’t say anything just nodded her head. “And if you ever need to talk about that place, you’ve got both of us”

Wanda reached out and grabbed Laura’s hand. “I know”.

 

 

** 23rd of December **

After the stress of the day before with Laura’s parents, the only thing Wanda wanted to do was bake. For her, baking always helped. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as relaxing with Sam there. He was always determined to steal whatever food from her he could. No matter how hard he tried, though, he could never get past her.

Until today.

***

Wanda was humming along the to the Christmas music blaring out of the radio as she studied the instructions for constructing the gingerbread house. She reached over to grab two of the walls that she’d baked earlier, only to find one of them wasn’t there.

“Sam,” she hissed. “Where is he?”. Her eyes scanned the room for any sign of him. At first, she couldn’t see anything just an empty room, with everyone else sat around in the living room. Then, she spotted a foot sticking out from underneath the table. She bent down to the floor and stared at him. “Give it back”

“Don’t want to. I’m hungry,” Sam argued, as he clutched the gingerbread to his chest.

“Sam, you are a grown man, stop acting like a child and give me the gingerbread back,” she demanded. When Sam didn’t give up, she quickly changed her tactics. “Lila will not be happy if we don’t have that gingerbread house that I promised her on Christmas day. And I’ll tell her why and you and I both know that it is not fun”

Sam disappeared from under the table and when Wanda stood back up again, the missing wall was back on the table.

***

A few hours later, everyone was sat in the living room when Clint spotted something weird outside of the window.

“Wanda, why is Sam being chased by a flying rolling pin?” he asked. Everyone else crowded around the window to see. Sure enough, Sam was running around outside, desperately trying to find some form of cover from the rolling pin that was encased in red lights and following him around.

“Just making sure that he doesn’t try and steal food from me ever again”

 

 

** 24th of December **

For the first time all month, they had done it. They had gotten through the day without anything weird happening. The day had been as normal as it could’ve been living with three children and multiple superheroes. But for Laura, it had been perfectly fine. Everything was ready for the next day-

“Mom, someone’s at the door!” Lila yelled. Laura leapt up from where she had been trying to sleep in her bed and ran out into the hallway, Clint right behind her. When she got there, Wanda had already come out of her room and she could hear noise in the boys’ room.

“Wanda, go hide with the kids,” Clint instructed. She nodded and grabbed Lila from her room, before running in to her brothers’ room. Clint turned to Laura. “I’ll cover your back”

Laura nodded and ran down the stairs towards the door. In the door to her right, she could see Thor hiding, Mjolnir in hand. In the other door, she could see Nat pressed against the door with her Widow’s bites armed. Bruce was stood next to her, a greenish tint to his eyes. Laura carefully opened the door as far as the chain would allow it. When she saw who was on the other side, she slammed the door closed, removed the chain and pulled the door back open.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded.

“I ditched what’s left of the Avengers, could I stay with you lot for Christmas?” Tony asked sheepishly.

“Clint!” she yelled in confused panic. Clint barrelling down the stairs and came to a stop behind Laura. The others weren’t far behind them. Wanda was at the back of the group, holding Nathaniel in one arm, her other arm up to hold back Lila and Cooper.

“Come in,” Clint said, standing to the side and beckoning for him to come. As Tony came in, Clint turned around to Lila and Cooper. “Kids, go back to bed. It’s late and Santa won’t come if you’re awake”

“But you’re still awake,” Lila argued.

“He doesn’t care about adults,” Wanda told her little sister. “The adults actually help Santa get the presents out. And before you ask, yes, I count as an adult”. Lila sighed dramatically, before giving up and dragging herself off to bed. Cooper turned back to look at the others.

“I know that Santa isn’t real, so can I stay up?” Cooper asked. He took one look at Laura, before turning around and walking to his room.

“We should go into the living room,” Laura suggested. Tony nodded and walked into the living room. Clint switched the lights on as he walked in behind Tony, revealing Nat and Bruce, who were sat on the sofa bed. Tony screeched in shock when he saw the two of them.

“When did you two get here?” he asked, pressed up against the wall after leaping backwards in shock.

“Like a week ago,” Nat said as if this wasn’t the first time they’d spoken since she’d left the compound months ago.

“Was Stark shocked to see the others?” came Thor’s booming voice from the door. Tony turned around to look at Thor, who had just joined the rest of them in the room.

“I thought me turning up was going to be a surprise, but looks like I’m just late to the party,” he said.

“To be fair, you’ve never been one to turn up on time,” Nat pointed out.

“Yeah,” Tony agreed. He looked around at all the people who were in the room. “Where’s Wanda and Barnes?”

Clint’s head snapped up. “Wanda was right here, where did she go? Wanda. Wanda!” he called.

“Relax Dad,” Wanda replied as she came down the stairs. “I was just putting Nathaniel back to bed”. She came and stood next to Clint and he wrapped his arm around her side.

“Well that’s answers where she was, but not Barnes,” Tony said.

Steve sighed. “It’s a long story”

Tony dropped himself onto the end of the sofa bed. “I got time”

Everyone else around the room got themselves settled down on various sofas, chairs and beanbags before Steve started the story.

“Well, it started when we ran into T’Challa in Siberia”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone who's being reading How We Got Here, I'm really sorry, I messed up the order I was posting. The end of the 24th is meant to lead into the end of chapter four of How We Got Here and I was meant to upload this first xx


	10. Christmas

25/12/16

“Wanda, wake up, it’s Christmas!” Lila yelled as she burst into Wanda’s room before running back out again. Wanda could hear her run into Steve, Scott and Sam’s room and then her brothers’ before rushing downstairs. Wanda dragged herself into the hallway. Laura and Clint were already coming out of their room and she could hear the boys getting out of bed.

“Merry Christmas,” she yawned. “Let’s go downstairs before Lila comes back up again”. Clint and Laura mumbled in agreement and the three of them were about to head downstairs when Sam suddenly stuck his head of his room.

“Can you guys smell bacon?” he demanded. Wanda sniffed the air for a second before nodding. Sam grinned and ducked back inside his room. “Guys, it is bacon!”. Seconds later, he, Scott and Steve went charging past and down the stairs. Wanda looked back at her parents, who were as equally confused as she was. The three of them headed down the stairs at a normal pace and went and sat in the living room, where Nat and Bruce had already put the sofa bed away. A few moments later, Tony came in, his hands filled with plates of bacon sandwiches.

“Merry Baconmas!” he declared as he handed the plates out. “How long until we can open presents?”

Clint stared at Tony. “You seem more excited about all of this than the kids do Tony,” he pointed out.

“What can I say?” Tony pondered. “I’m a kid at heart myself”. Clint just rolled his eyes.

“Can we open the presents now?” Lila whined.

“Lek mi fimick eeing,” Clint mumbled. Everyone else stared at him.

 _Did you mean to say let me ‘let me finish eating’_ Wanda asked him telepathically.

 _Is that not what I said?_ he replied, a smirk on his face.

“He was trying to say was to let him finish eating first,” Wanda told the others. Most of the group nodded, but Bruce, Nat, Thor and Tony seemed confused. “Telepathy,” was the only explanation she offered.

“Hey, Lila,” Nat said. “Whilst we wait for your Dad, come and have a look at this”. She grabbed the camera. “I caught Santa on camera”. Lila gasped and ran and jumped up onto Nat’s lap and watched the footage in awe.

The second Clint’s plate hit the coffee table, Lila leapt off of Nat’s lap and ran to the tree and grabbed the first present she saw.

“To Scott, Merry Christmas, Barton Family” she read off. She handed the present to Scott and looked back at the pile. “Which ones are mine?”

***

Almost an hour, and a lot of presents later, the room was covered in wrapping paper and filled with the noise of the children playing with their new toys. Tony was happy enough playing on the floor with ‘Tony the Stank Engine’. Much to everyone’s surprise, he found the whole joke hilarious and had found it even better that Steve had done the whole thing on purpose. There was only one present left to unwrap. Bruce reached into his bag and pulled out the ring box. Tony stared at him in shock.

“Nat?” he mouthed at Bruce. Bruce nodded nervously. He caught Clint’s eye from across the room. Clint grinned at him as he walked up behind Nat, who was sat talking to Laura, her back to Bruce. The others watched him in confusion, not entirely sure what he was up to. He reached Nat and took a deep breath in before going down on one knee. Everyone else around the room gasped. Nat turned around to see whatever it was everyone seemed so shocked about. When she saw Bruce, her hands flew up to her mouth and she almost fell off the arm of the chair, but Laura caught her from behind.

“I had a huge speech planned out, but it’s kinda escaped me,” he stammered out. Nat giggled nervously. “But, Natasha Romanoff, will you marry me?”. Nat nodded, attempting to wipe the tears from her eyes as Bruce slid the ring onto her finger. The others whooped and cheered for the two of them as they kissed.

Clint smirked as he held a camera up triumphantly. “And now you can’t ever deny that you’ve cried at least once in your entire life Romanoff,” he declared. “I have photographic evidence to prove it”

“I don’t really care to be honest,” she laughed as she lobbed a cushion across the room at him.

Lila ran across the room and wrapped her arms around Nat and Bruce. “Can I be a bridesmaid?” she whispered to Nat. Nat just laughed and scooped Lila up. Nat whispered something in Lila’s ear and the little girl beamed at her, before running back to carry on playing with Tony.

***

“A little to the left,” Clint directed as Wanda held the table in the air. “That should do it”. Wanda lowered the table and began to place the chairs around the table.

“And now we have enough space for everyone else,” Tony said. “Thankfully someone was thoughtful enough to buy you a second table and some extra chairs for occasions like this”. Clint and Laura just rolled their eyes and the two of them shoved past him and back into the living room. “Like father, like daughter”. Laura shoved past him to finish making Christmas dinner. “And mother too apparently”

***

An hour later, everyone was sat around the table(s) and Christmas lunch had been served. Everyone started pulling the crackers and putting the paper hats on their heads. Lila and Cooper were racing to little toy plastics frogs that they’d gotten from the crackers.

“Hey does anyone want to hear a good joke?” Tony asked.

“Your face,” Steve and Clint said at the exact same moment.

“Ha ha,” he replied. “But seriously, what do you get if you cross mistletoe and a duck?”

“Will Herondale’s nightmare?” Wanda asked.

“No,” Tony sassed. “A Christmas quacker!”

“That is one of the worst jokes I’ve ever heard,” Scott groaned. “And time for another”. Everyone else groaned. “How do you scare a snowman?”

“I know. I know,” Sam shouted. “You show him a picture of Tony”. Everyone laughed.

“Is today National Pick On Tony Stark Day?” he pouted.

“Every day is National Pick On Tony Stark Day,” Scott explained. “But you scare a snowman with a hairdryer”

“Okay, no more bad jokes, or you will be eating outside,” Laura instructed.

That was how Steve, Sam and Scott ended up eating on the porch.

***

It was late in the evening and the friendships between the Avengers were under threat as they were midway through a game of monopoly. Laura was upstairs, putting the kids to bed. All was going well until…

“LILA KATHERINE BARTON” Laura yelled.

“You could make a drinking game out of how many times you heard that girl’s full name,” Nat observed.

Tony stood up. “I’ll get the vodka; you get the shot glasses”. Nat grinned and ran into the kitchen, the light glistening of her ring.

“Guys, it’s Christmas,” Clint argued. “Nat, get the festive shot glasses”

“How many do I need?” she asked as she reached up into the cupboard.

“One for you and me, obviously,” said Tony.

“And me and Tic-Tac,” Sam challenged.

“Oh, it is one Birdie,” Scott replied.

“Anyone else?” she asked. Steve, Clint, Wanda, Bruce and Thor shook their heads.

Nat came and sat back down, handing out the novelty shot glasses. “I got you this set the first Christmas I knew you, eight years ago”. She handed out the glasses and Tony opened the bottle of vodka he’d apparently brought with him.

“LILA KATHERINE BARTON,” Laura yelled again. The four of them took a shot each.

Less than half an hour later, Laura came back downstairs to see what the others were up to. When she came in, Sam was passed out asleep on the floor, Scott was ‘dancing’ on the armchair in the corner and Tony was laughing hysterically on the floor.

“What happened?” she asked.

“The four of us were playing a drinking game,” Nat explained. “We each took a shot every time you called Lila by her full name. The boys apparently can’t handle their liquor as well as a Russian”

Laura didn’t say anything, just walked back out of the room again.

***

Eventually, everyone gave up for the day and headed to bed. Tony was persuaded by Thor to go back to the other room and soon enough, was passed out on his bed. Bruce and Nat had gotten the sofa bed back out, and the two of them were curled up asleep there. Steve had had to carry a still passed out Sam upstairs and stuck him back on the top bunk. He then went back for Scott and he was now passed out in his bed in the boys’ room as well. The kids had been in bed for hours now, the only person left was Wanda. Clint checked in on her as she was sat in bed reading Clockwork Princess.

“Shouldn’t you be asleep?” he asked as he leant against the door frame.

“Five more minutes,” she argued. “I’m at the epilogue right now and it’s really sad”

“Fine, but I’m blaming whoever got you reading those books if you’re grumpy in the morning,” he said.

“It was Mom, so have fun with that,” she replied. “And I think three hungover men are going to be your biggest problem tomorrow”

Clint rolled his eyes and closed the door as he headed out of her room and into his own, where Laura was already in bed. The only light in the room came from the lamp on her bedside table. She smiled at him as he came and laid down next to her. She turned the light off and curled up against him. There was silence for a few moments.

“You know, it’s your fault that our daughter won’t sleep,” he pointed out. “You got her reading those books”

Laura slapped her husband lightly on the chest. “I hate you,” she joked. “Now go to sleep”

“Merry Christmas Laura”

“Merry Christmas Clint”


	11. A Family Situation

16/3/17

“Laura, I love you and I don’t normally question your decisions, but are you really sure that this is the best idea?” Clint asked from where his wife had him mixing a brownie batter at the kitchen table.

Before Laura could respond, Lila’s voice piped up from the door. “Daddy, you should never question Mommy’s decisions, she married you after all,” Lila said as she stared up at Clint, an innocent smile on her face, before she turned to Laura and presented the box in her hands to her. “I got the stuff you asked for,” she told her mother before skipping out of the room again.

“You should listen to your daughter,” Laura smirked. Clint only responded by sticking his tongue out at her. “And besides, it’s just Thor’s friends coming round to visit, what could go wrong?”

“You haven’t met Sif or any of the Warriors Three,” Clint argued. “They’re all crazy and tend to have slightly destructive tendencies”

Laura stared at her husband, her hands on her hips and a look of pity on his face. “Oh honey, I think your hearing aids are playing up again. I’ve said countless times these last two weeks that it’s just the ones from our realm. I’m not as daft as you look”. Clint blinked furiously at his wife a few times, too stunned to respond.

“Well, I can clearly see where Lila gets her sass from,” Scott said. Laura and Clint turned to look at him. “Did you forget I was here again?”

“No, of course not,” Laura desperately tried to reassure Scott, whilst she opened the box that Lila had brought her. She pulled out a large piece of fabric, covered in pictures of superheroes.

“Did you buy an Avengers table cloth?” Scott asked.

“Five years ago, when the Avengers first became a thing, Laura was determined to buy every piece of embarrassing merchandise with me on that she could possibly find. I’m not on a lot, but the stuff she could find is horrendous,” Clint explained, staring at the table cloth as if he wanted to stick a few arrows in it. “I thought I’d managed to hide most of it, but apparently not”

“Under the bed isn’t exactly the most imaginative place to hide stuff,” Laura pointed out. “Seriously you’re a spy, how did you not get caught or killed?”

“Nat,” Clint answered.

At that moment, there came a noise from outside, accompanied by a flashing of bright lights as the Bifrost opened up, dropping Thor and his friends on the grass outside the house.

“You go out and say hi to the guests, I’ll be out in a minute,” Laura instructed. Clint nodded and slipped out the house as Laura slid the tray of brownie batter into the oven. She threw the tacky table cloth over the dining room table before following everyone else outside. She ended up at the back of the small crowd that was gathering on the porch. She’d ended up behind Steve and was struggling to see over the top of his shoulders.

  “Jane, Selvig,” Tony all but yelled as he went over to greet the two other scientists, Bruce behind him.  Tony bro-hugged Selvig while Bruce went over and shook Jane’s hand. “And I don’t know you two,” Tony said as he turned to two other people, who Laura could only see the tops of the heads of over Steve’s shoulder.

“That’s my intern Darcy and her intern, Ian” Jane explained. “Don’t ask”

“No need to be mean Jane,” Darcy argued. Laura’s head shot up at the sound of her voice and she began to shove her way through the superhumans surrounding her.

“Mom!” Lila exclaimed as she clung to her sister’s leg. “What are you doing?”

Laura didn’t answer, just stumbled down the steps between Clint and Nat. “Darcy. Lewis,” she hissed through gritted teeth. “You know Thor? And you didn’t tell me!”

Darcy stared at Laura in shock for a few moments. “Laura,” she was eventually able to splutter out. The two girls took a couple of steps towards each other. “Wha- bu- HOW?!”. She closed the gap between them and wrapped her arms around the confused woman. It wasn’t long before Laura was returning the embrace.

Tony turned to Clint. “Do you have any idea what’s going on right now?” he asked, looking the most confused Clint had ever seen him. Clint, equally confused, shook his head. Tony glanced at Thor and Jane for any clue as to what was going on. The two of them both shrugged.

The two girls released each other and Laura beckoned for Clint to come other. She held her hand out and clasped their hands together. Darcy looked between the two of them, taking in the matching golden bands on their left ring fingers.

“Shut up, no way, Laura. Did you marry a fu- OW!” Darcy cried out as Laura hit her in the arm as both Steve and Tony yelled at her to watch her language. “-a freaking Avenger?”. Laura nodded. “So this is why Mom has been complaining to me for years”

“Wait, your Mom?” Jane asked. “What does she have to do with any of this?”

Darcy grabbed Laura by the arm and dragged her over to where Jane was stood by Thor, Laura also dragging Clint along with her. When they reached them, Darcy looped her arm through Laura’s, as if the two girls had known each other for years. “Jane this is Laura, my big sister”. Okay, so maybe the two girls had known each other for years.

“Wait, what?” Wanda exclaimed. Lila dashed out from behind her sister’s legs and ran past Nat. She locked her arms around Darcy’s legs.

“Hi,” the girl grinned up at her. “I’m Lila”. Darcy looked at her sister for some form of explanation.

“That is your niece”. Laura turned back to the small crowd that was still loitering on the porch. “Cooper, Wanda, come on”. Cooper pushed his way out of the group, his sister right behind him, Nathaniel held in her arms. Her baby brother was playing with her hair as the group made their way over. “This is Cooper, Nathaniel and Wanda”. Cooper waved at Darcy and Wanda shot her a sheepish smile. Darcy waved back at her nephew. “Why don’t we all head inside?”

***

It took a lot of effort but they were somehow able to squish everyone into the, thankfully open-plan, living room and kitchen area. Wanda was sandwiched between her younger sibling on the pile of beanbags in the corner. Selvig was sat between Tony and Bruce on the bigger sofa, the three of them talking about science. Nat had perched on the arm of the sofa next to Bruce, her feet propped in his lap. Thor was sat crossed leg on the floor, Jane sat in front of him, leaning back against him. Ian had taken the armchair in the corner. Scott, Steve and Sam had pulled chairs up from the kitchen table and were sat peering over the half wall that separated the two rooms. They were watching Laura and Darcy. The sisters were sat on the smaller sofa, Laura watching as her sister was sat holding her youngest nephew. Clint was also watching the them from where he’d dragged a small footstool over to the side of the sofa. Laura was using his head as an arm rest.

“He’s so cute,” Darcy gushed, as Nathaniel reached out and grabbed a lock of her hair. She grinned at him, right before he shoved the fistful of hair into his mouth. “No, Nathaniel, no”. Laura snorted and helped Darcy remove her hair from Nathaniel’s mouth. Darcy looked down and gagged at the sight of a large patch of Nathaniel’s drool splattered all over her chest.

“Come on,” Laura said, taking Nathaniel from her sister’s and passing him over to Clint. “I’m sure that I can find something upstairs that will fit you. We’re probably still the same size”. She stood up and began to walk out of the room, but paused at the door. “That is, unless you’ve let yourself go”. Laura ran out the room and up the stairs, Darcy hot on her heels.

Sam turned and looked at the others. “Sibling love, am I right?” he joked.

“I don’t know,” Clint argued. “Thor and I don’t exactly have the best relationships with our brothers”. Thor nodded in agreement.

***

Darcy burst through the door she’d seen her sister disappear through seconds before. “LET MYSELF GO!” she shrieked. She grabbed a pillow off the bed and lobbed it at Laura’s head. “YOU ARE SO DEAD TO ME”. Laura just grinned at her sister and reached into the wardrobe, looking for something for Darcy to wear.

“Perfect,” she announced. A few seconds later, Darcy was hit in the face by a t-shirt. She unravelled it to see Thor’s face staring back at her.

“Are you being serious?” she asked, glaring at her sister.

“What? The only way I could get the Hawkeye t-shirt was if I bought the whole set,” Laura defended. “And I had to get it. Couldn’t pass up on an opportunity to embarrass Clint”

Darcy begrudgingly changed into the Thor t-shirt, balling her dirty one up and throwing it at Laura, who dropped it into the laundry basket, before flopping down on the bed. “It’s still weird that you married an Avenger by the way. I thought it was impressive that I knew Thor, but no. You had to one up me”

“As the older sister, it is my job to make all of my younger sister’s achievements pale in comparison to mine,” she argued as she threw herself down next to her sister. “And besides, I knew him before he even joined S.H.I.E.L.D. From my point of view, it’s weird that my husband became an Avenger”

“Yeah, but like you have kids with an Avenger. You know what that means,” Darcy giggled, elbowing Laura in the side.

“Darcy, I am a grown woman with four children, and yet you are still acting like a teenager,” Laura exclaimed, sitting up sharply, out of reach of her sister’s elbow.

“You with kids,” Darcy exhaled. She shook her head and stared up at her sister. “It’s just weird. I haven’t seen you in years. Last time I saw you, we were meeting in a coffee shop, and you were going on about some guy that you met and I was about to head off to college. Next thing I knew, Mom said you were pregnant and you were getting married, but by the time I got home, you’d already left the state. She wouldn’t tell me where you went”. Laura looked over at her sister. She’d sat herself up and was hugging her knees, leaning back against the headboard. Laura turned herself around and mirrored her sister’s position.

“Yeah, Mom and Dad were never Clint’s biggest fans in the first place,” she said. “But, after I got pregnant, before we were married, those hypocrites-”

“Wait,” Darcy cut her off. “What do you mean by that?”

“I was born five months after their wedding,” Laura explained. “Mom, she told me that I had to stay and tell you myself, where I was going, that she wouldn’t. But Clint had just joined S.H.I.E.L.D. and he already had enough enemies as it was. Fury would set this place up off record, so nobody would ever find us, that’s why we’ve been safe since the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. It wasn’t safe in New York anymore, we had to leave. Believe me, I wanted to stay, but I couldn’t but Cooper in danger. I love you Darcy, I always will do, but my children come first, they always will do”

Darcy nodded in understanding. “That whole thing about Mom and Dad not liking Clint is the understatement of the century by the way. You should’ve heard them over Thanksgiving”

“Oh believe me,” Laura argued. “I heard enough over Christmas. And so did everyone else from upstairs. I may have kicked them out after they started on Wanda”

“Yeah, what’s up with that?” Darcy asked. “Not that there’s any problem with it, but I’m nosy”

“She lost her brother in Sokovia,” Laura began to explain. “He died saving Clint. She lost everything that day. Their parents had already died several years earlier, but Pietro’s sacrifice that day meant that my kids will get to grow up with their Dad”

“Pietro,” Darcy whispered. “As in Nathaniel Pietro Barton?”

Laura nodded before she carried on talking. “After Sokovia, she just needed a home, a family. She ended up staying with us for a few weeks before she joined the team officially, but even after that, she still came back here as often as she could. She spent Christmas with us that year. When everything with the Accords started up, I told Clint to go get her and bring her away from all that drama. He did as he was told, even if it was done a little illegally”

“So,” Darcy said. “I have an Avenger for a brother-in-law and an Avenger for a niece”

Laura stared at her sister. “Is that all you took from that?”. Darcy shrugged before jumping off the bed and walking to the door.

“Come on,” she said. “I bet Clint has some great dirt on you that I could definitely use in the future”. Laura stared at her sister in horror as she raced out the door. A few moments later she leapt off her bed and chased her sister out of the room.

                                                                                                ***                                        

“Clint!” Darcy yelled, as she came dashing into the room. She skidded to a stop behind Jane and Thor, who were still sat on the floor between the two sofas. “Quick, I need any awkward stories about my sist-”. She was cut off by Laura barrelling into the room behind her. Laura threw herself at Darcy, grabbing her by the waist. Her momentum sent the two of them staggering forward until they toppled over Thor’s shoulder and they crashed onto the floor in front of them. Jane squeaked as Darcy’s foot narrowly missed her face, shoving herself further back into Thor’s chest.

Laura twisted on the floor and turned to face her husband. “Don’t you dare tell her anything mister,” she warned, waving her finger at him threateningly. “Because believe me, I have some good ones about you from New York that I’m sure your teammates would love to hear”. Clint raised one eyebrow sceptically. “Like how you became partially deaf after you got shot in the head by a clown, not even in your circus days”.

Clint decided not to cross his wife.

“Darcy, are you wearing a Thor t-shirt?” Ian asked, quickly changing the subject.

“Yep,” she said proudly. “Laura gave it to me”

“Is that from the set you bought like four years ago?” Clint asked. Laura nodded. “What even happened to the rest of them?”

“I’ve got the Hulk one,” Nat piped from the corner. Bruce stared up at his fiancée where she was still sat on the arm of the sofa.

“You have a Hulk t-shirt?” he asked.

“When Wanda and I got back after staying here after Sokovia, I went to unpack my bag and I found that dumb t-shirt in my bag. I’m guessing somebody,” she explained as she turned to glare at Laura. “Slipped it into to my bag. Although, I will admit that it made a very comfy pyjama shirt”. Nat moved her feet from Bruce’s lap and slid herself down to sit there. “Nothing like the real thing though,” she laughed as Bruce began to blush. Clint cleared his throat and nodded his head to his children in the corner. Wanda sharply pointed at Cooper and Lila, who she had curled up on either side of her. Nat just smirked at them as she nestled in closer to Bruce, stretching her legs out so that her feet were resting on Tony’s lap on the other side of Selvig.

“Can I just say that I’m still finding this whole situation weird,” Tony said as he attempted to tickle the bottom of one of Nat’s feet, though he was quickly stopped by a sharp jab of her toes to the jaw. “Like, some days I feel like I’m still getting over this place existing, and now one of Thor’s human BFFs is Laura’s sister is just plain weird”

“Mr. Stark does have a point,” Selvig pointed out. “The odds of this happening are astronomically small, considering the number of powered individuals compared to the much larger number of civilians, the chances of this happening-”

“Or maybe this just happened because Lewis sisters have a habit of getting caught up in crazy superhero drama,” Darcy interrupted, as she picked herself up from the floor. She reached down and held her hand out to help Laura up. The two of them walked over to where Clint was sat on the smaller sofa, bouncing Nathaniel on his lap. Laura sat down next to her husband and Darcy claimed the footstall.

“She’s right though,” Laura added. “We do have a way of getting into trouble. At least we’re not as bad as our brother. And don’t even bring our cousin into this, she’s insane”. Darcy just nodded.

“That seems to be a theme amongst the group,” Bruce pointed out. “Trouble follows us everywhere. Proof: that lovely elderly Australian couple from down the beach”. Nat groaned and held her head in her hands. Bruce snorted at her response and rubbed her back.

“There’s a story here, and I want to know it,” Tony said, pointing at the couple at the other end of the sofa. The two of them stared at him and Nat shook her head.

“You don’t to know. You never want to know,” she told him. “And, more proof: Budapest”. She turned to Clint. “And how come you remember Budapest very differently to me?”

“Firstly,” Clint began to list. “You weren’t trying to kill me in New York. Secondly, Bobbi wasn’t with us in New York. Thirdly, we were fighting aliens in New York, not a weird alliance of the tracksuit mafia and the KGB. And finally, there were approximately zero goats in New York, none that I saw at least”

The group stared at Clint in confusion. Nat nodded her head in agreement.

“That just leaves me with more questions about this alleged Budapest mission than it answers,” Tony said after a few moments of silence. “Least of which; who is this Bobbi?”

“Bobbi Morse was a friend of ours back at S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Clint explained. “We called her Mockingbird. She said she hated it and us, but I think the name grew on her eventually. And the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D., it caught on”

“Eventually,” Nat emphasised. “But it was great, being friends with another female agent. We used to go out and complain about men, mainly her ex-husband, but you know, some of the agents at S.H.I.E.L.D., but mainly Hunter”

“I remember,” Clint nodded, staring into the middle distance in mild horror. Laura leant forward in front of him and clicked her fingers in front of face a few times, snapping him back to reality. “I wonder what happened to her. After S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, that is”. A quiet mood settled over the room for a moment, before Darcy’s stomach rumbled loudly.

“So, Darcy’s hungry, anyone else?” Laura asked. Fourteen hands all shot up into the air. “Good thing that I made a lot of food”

***

A few hours, and a lot of food later, the sun was beginning to set on the farm. Nathaniel had already fallen asleep and Clint had taken him back to his room. Lila had almost dozed off leaning against her sister and Cooper was struggling to stay awake as well. Clint and Laura exchanged a look, before Laura locked eyes with her sister.

“I think we’re going to have to call it a day,” Laura said with a sigh.

“Whatareyoutalkingabout?” Lila mumbled, lifting her head up from her sister’s shoulder. “I’mwideawake”. She promptly fell asleep again, her head hitting Wanda’s shoulder and sliding down her arm.

“I’ve got this,” Wanda said. She stood up and scooped her little sister up into her arms. She nudged Cooper with her toe. He reluctantly dragged himself to his feet and followed his sisters out of the room. He sleepily waved goodbye as he left the room.

Thor stood up and helped Jane to her feet. The others were quick to follow and they began to make their way outside to where Heimdall would open the Bifrost, taking Thor and the others back to Asgard. Laura reached over and hugged her sister, who was quick to hug back. After a few moments, Darcy released Laura and grabbed Clint a hug.

“Nice to meet you, sorry my parents are, well, my parents,” she apologised. “Don’t even get me started on my brother”

“That’s okay,” he reassured. “You don’t want to know about my brother”

Darcy laughed and let go at Clint. She looked over his shoulder at Wanda, who had gotten changed into a pair of fuzzy penguin pyjamas and had come down to the porch. Darcy opened her arms and beckoned for Wanda to come closer. The younger girl took a few steps towards her and allowed Darcy to wrap her arms around her.

“Your pretty cool kid,” she whispered into Wanda’s ear. “Definitely my favourite sorta niece”. Wanda snorted as Darcy let her go as she ran over to the join the others. She waved goodbye as the bright lights of the Bifrost surrounded the group and they were pulled away back to Asgard. Everyone stared at the ground, where an intricate pattern had been burnt into the grass.

“That man has no regard for lawn maintenance,” Tony declared, before turning back into the house.


	12. No Re-Morse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and really miss Bobbi and Hunter, so I'm adding them in here and adding them to the fluff overload that is this story

12/3/17

Blue. Two floors. White door and matching shutters on the window. Large porch at the front. Big driveway with a family sized car on it. The rest of the PTA’s kids playing out back. A typical house and typical ‘welcome to our town’ party. Laura couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor couple that had just moved into town.

“You two go play with the others,” Laura said. Lila and Cooper raced down the side of the house, yelling to their friends. Laura shifted Nathaniel on her hip as she shouldered Nathaniel’s nappy bag and lifted the bag with the brownies she’d brought with her. If anyone asked, she’d baked them, not Clint.

“Laura, there you are,” Stephanie called as Laura walked through the door. She took the bag of brownies off Laura and pulled over to a tall blonde woman in the kitchen. She handed the bag to the woman. “Laura this is Barbara. Barbara, Laura”.

“Lovely to meet you” Laura said as she shook Barbara’s hand. She came around the kitchen island to reveal a small bump underneath her pale blue blouse. Laura had hoped she was wearing heels, but she was wearing flats and apparently really was that tall.

“Please, call me Bobbi. Lovely to meet you too,” she smiled. “And this little guy, what’s his name?”

“This is Nathaniel,” Laura introduced. She leant back and pointed to the other two children in the garden. “And the girl in blue dress and pigtails is Lila and the boy in the Green Lantern t-shirt is Cooper”

“Well they are all absolutely adorable,” came a new, British voice from the door. A man, only an inch shorter than Bobbi. “Name’s Hunter”. He held out his hand and Laura gladly shook it. “Are those brownies in that bag?”. He grabbed the bag and pulled one of the brownies out of the box, taking a large bite out of it. “Bob, you have to try these. This is the best thing I’ve ever tasted”

Bobbi reached over and grabbed the brownie from Hunter’s hand and popped the rest of it into her mouth, grinning smugly at him. “You’re right,” she said. “These are good”. She chewed thoughtfully on the brownie for a few seconds. “And they taste weirdly familiar. Where did you get these?”

“I, erm, baked them,” Laura replied.

“Oh,” Bobbi said. “They tasted like an old friend’s. He had a secret recipe that he was extremely protective over. Like worryingly protective over”. Stephanie stared at Bobbi.

“Well it sounds like you had some weird friends,” she joked. Bobbi and Hunter exchanged a look, smirks on both of their faces.

“That is certainly one way of putting it,” Hunter joked. Laura shifted Nathaniel on her hip and crinkled her nose as she got a fowl whiff coming from him.

“Where’s the bathroom?” she asked. “Because this little guy needs changing”

“Sure,” Bobbi said. She started towards the stairs. “It’s this way, I’ll show you”. Laura shifted the nappy bag on her shoulder and followed Bobbi up the stairs. “It’s just through there,” she told Laura as she pointed out a door. Laura thanked her and pushed the door open. She heard Bobbi’s footsteps echoing down the stairs. She quickly changed Nathaniel and left the bathroom. She was just about to head down the stairs, when she spotted a picture poking out of an unpacked box.  She crept over and picked the picture, studying it for a few seconds, before stuffing it back inside the box. She didn’t want any unwelcome eyes seeing the picture of Bobbi with a very familiar redhead and a man in a purple t-shirt, covered in plasters.

***

A few days after the welcome party, Laura was grabbing a few ingredients for baking brownies. Clint seemed to be baking a new batch every day. She turned around the corner of the aisle and almost walked straight into Bobbi.

“I’m so sorry,” she apologised. “I wasn’t looking where I was going, I should’ve been”

“No, no, it’s my fault,” Bobbi reassured. She squinted at Laura for a moment. “Laura, right?”

Laura nodded. “Is Hunter here with you?” she asked. “I keep meaning to ask you two if you would like to come round for coffee sometime. Would be lovely to get to know the two of you without any kids running around”

“That sounds great,” Hunter said as he turned the corner, propping his arm on Bobbi’s shoulder. She glared at him for a few moments, before he sheepishly moved it off. “When are you free?”

“Now, if you are,” she offered.

“Sounds great,” Hunter grinned. “What do you want us to do, just follow your back to your place?”. Laura nodded as the three of them made their way to the checkout and paid for their items.

“I live just outside of town,” Laura explained as they walked to their cars. “It’s only about a ten-minute drive outside of town”

“We’ll see you there,” Hunter smiled as he and Bobbi got into their car and the two of her out of town.

***

“Bob, I don’t see what you’re worrying about,” Hunter laughed as they drove out of town.

Bobbi shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “I don’t know, but I feel like she knows something we don’t. I’m just worried. I know this place is good, Fury never would’ve suggested settling down here if he didn’t think it was safe, but it’s not just us that we have to worry about anymore,” she said, looking down at her bump.

“She’s five three, lives with just her kids, a one-eyed dog and a few horses on an old farm,” Hunter reassured. “There’s nothing to worry about”

“How do you know all that?” Bobbi asked.

Hunter shrugged. “That Stephanie sure does love to gossip. Look, we’re here”

***

Bobbi and Hunter stepped out the car and followed Laura into the house. As she lead them into the living room, they heard a small shuffling noise coming from one of the rooms upstairs. Hunter tried to ignore the way Bobbi’s hand reached towards her used to keep her batons, instinctively going to defend herself.

“I’ll be down in a minute, make yourselves at home,” Laura said before disappearing out of the room. The two of them sat on a small sofa. A big golden lab with one eye came bouncing into the room and jumped next to them on the sofa, placing his fronts paws on Hunter’s lap and leaning over to sniff him in the face.

“Lucky!” exclaimed a thick Sokovian accent from the doorway. The pair looked over to see Wanda Maximoff stood in the doorway. “Get off the sofa”. Bobbi and Hunter could only watch in shock as the immensely powerful Scarlet Witch attempted to shove a lazy dog off a sofa. This really wasn’t what they were expecting to see when they walked through the door.

“Down!” snapped someone from the door. Lucky jumped to the floor and crossed the room to have the fur on the top of his head ruffled by the person stood in the door, a person Bobbi never thought she’d ever see again after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D.

“Clint!” she exclaimed. She crossed the room and wrapped her arms around her old friend. “What are you doing here?”

“Dad?” Wanda asked. “Who’s this?”. Clint pulled back from the tall woman and stared at her.

“Bobbi,” he was eventually able to splutter out. “I have questions, a lot of them. First of all; what are you doing here?”

“I believe she asked you that first,” Hunter piped up from the corner.

“I live here,” Clint quickly explained. “Your turn”

“Laura invited us round,” Bobbi said. She froze for a moment, as if suddenly realising the situation they were all in. “Wait, who is Laura?”

“Just a girl who likes reuniting old friends,” Laura said as she walked back into the room. She stopped next to Clint, resting her left arm on his shoulder, making small jabbing motions to him with her ring finger, her golden wedding band glistening in the light. Bobbi stared at the ring for a moment as she was able to put together the pieces of the puzzle, realising what important fact about his life her friend had been neglecting to tell her for almost ten years.

“You’re married!” Bobbi exclaimed. “And you didn’t tell me!”. She hit Clint in the arm. “Why didn’t you tell me?”. She kept hitting him in the arm as he flinched away, oblivious to the laughter coming from behind her.

“Oh, this is priceless,” Nat laughed as she held up her phone photographing Bobbi’s reaction she for bribery at a later date. “You should see the look on your face. Actually, if you give me your number, then you can see the look on your face”

“Am I actually seeing this right now?” Hunter asked from where he was still sat on the sofa “Or is this all a very weird dream?”

“I think we’re both actually seeing this,” Bobbi attempted to reassure him, though she still wasn’t entirely sure she wasn’t actually dreaming. “This is actually happening”

“Who’s this then?” Tony asked from the kitchen, where he was rifling through the cupboards for crisps. He’d come downstairs and gone the other way round to the kitchen, deciding to skip the reunion and go straight to the food.

“This is Bobbi Morse, an old friend of ours from S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Nat introduced. “And that is Hunter, her… ex-husband who she is now back together with, apparently”

“Wait wait wait,” Tony said as he ran into the living room, his hand stuck in a bag of Doritos that somebody had stuck a picture of Steve on. “Bobbi as in Bobbi from Budapest”

“Why is Iron Man here?” Hunter asked. “Not complaining, but shouldn’t he be trying to arrest you lot?”

“Why arrest people when you can sticky tape their faces to Dorito bags instead?” he pointed out. Hunter shrugged, he couldn’t argue with logic. After all, sticky taping people’s face to bags of Doritos did sound like it had as much paperwork involved as arresting said people did. “So, Budapest. Tell. Me. Everything”

Bobbi crossed her arms, resting them on her bump. “Sorry,” she apologised. “But that’s classified”. Tony’s face fell as he realised that he still wasn’t getting the story of what happened in Budapest out of anyone.

“Who knows?” he hissed. “Who else knows? Tell me so I can ask them”

“There’s me, Nat, Clint, Hunter, Coulson, Fury, some poor guy with a vegetable stall and Laura I presume,” Bobbi counted off on her fingers as Laura nodded at her.

“And Kate,” Clint added. “I told Kate, probably shouldn’t have, but I did”

“Well, I didn’t count her because she’s dead,” Bobbi said.

“She’s alive,” Clint told her. “She and the other two managed to- wait, if you didn’t count Kate because you thought she was dead, why did you mention Coulson? And don’t you try and pretend you don’t know about what happened to him on the Helicarrier, because you were at his memorial service”

By this point, everyone else had gathered in the living room, many of them having known Coulson and grieved for him after his death. Bobbi and Hunter exchanged panicked looks, neither of them sure what to say.

“Coulson’s alive?” Tony was eventually able to ask.

“Before you have a go at us,” Hunter argued. “Sif knew and she didn’t tell you either”. Everyone turned to look at Thor, who’d frozen on the spot. After a few moments, he stormed out of the door.

“I’ll be back in a few hours,” he called back over his shoulder. He held his hammer up to the sky as the Bifrost opened up and he flew up into the sky.

“Well this has certainly been an interesting morning,” Scott said to break the silence. Bobbi and Hunter both turned to look at him.

“Who are you?” Bobbi asked. Scott just sighed and flopped down onto the beanbags into the corner.

“That’s Scott,” Wanda introduced. “The one that everyone seems to keep forgetting”. Scott glared at Wanda but nodded in agreement, everyone did seem to forget he was there sometimes.

“How?” Nat asked. “And why would he not tell us?”

“It was this thing called the TAHITI project,” Bobbi began to explain. “It used this drug called GH.325 that came from a dead alien called a Kree. S.H.I.E.L.D. had been experimenting with it before, using it cure other agents that had been sick and dying, but it messed with their brains. They began obsessively drawing this pattern over and over again. So, they wiped them. Took all their memories and put in new ones so they could live normal lives and Coulson had the project shut down. But, after his death, Fury reopened it to resurrect Coulson and then changed his memories so he thought he’d just been away recovering for a few months after the attack on the Helicarrier. Didn’t work for long though. Coulson and his team managed to find the base where the procedure happened when Daisy, or Skye at the time, almost died. They were able to save her, but the base got buried under a hundred tonnes of rock in the process. That was sorta what led them to finding the Inhumans, but that’s another crazy story for another day”

“And as for the why he didn’t tell you,” Hunter added. “I would say that’s because S.H.I.E.L.D. really sticks that whole classified nonsense in you from pretty early on”

“I really hate the fact our lives have gotten to the point where that is a logical explanation,” Laura stated as everyone nodded in agreement.

“You try living through it,” Hunter argued. “Our lives are insane”. Everyone else in the room raised one eyebrow at him, after all, they had lived through equally weird, and weirder, things.

“Our story begins many years ago,” Tony began. “When Odin defeated the frost giants and took a small baby, who he named Loki- hey”. He was cut off by Clint throwing a cushion at his face.

“Think you’re going back a little too far there,” Clint said. “So, what happened to you two after S.H.I.E.L.D. fell?”

“Well, before she went undercover at Hydra, she recommended me to Director Coulson,” Hunter paused to allow that last point to settle over the room. “Didn’t find out until she got back. We stuck around for a while, she almost got murdered by everyone’s Hydra ex-BFF, I went slightly murder-revenge over it, and one of our friends ended up getting sucked through a liquid rock/portal to another planet, she got back though, Hydra reopened the portal, the ex-BFF got killed by Coulson and we had to get disavowed so that we wouldn’t get killed by the Russians”

“This is almost weirder than the tracksuit mafia,” Laura said. “Bro”

“Bro,” Nat, Clint and Bobbi echoed. Everyone else turned to stare at them.

“You had to be there,” Nat explained. “Anyway, how did the two of you end up in Waverly of all places?”

Hunter began to speak. “Well, we went travelling for a bit and then we found out about the twins-”

“Wait,” Laura cut off. “Did you just say twins?”. Bobbi nodded and Laura leaned over and hugged her. “Congratulations!”

“As I was saying,” Hunter continued. “We found about the twins, we were told by an old friend of ours that this was the safest place for us to settle down”

“And by old friend, he means Fury,” Bobbi explained. Didn’t at the time, but it makes sense now, why he sent us here”

“I just can’t believe he didn’t tell us,” Scott said.

“Think about what you just said Tic-Tac,” Sam instructed. Scott thought for a moment before nodding in agreement. He could easily believe that Fury didn’t tell them. That man didn’t tell them anything.

“Anything interesting happen while S.H.I.E.L.D. was being rebuilt?” Steve asked.

Hunter snorted. “Well there was this one time…”

***

“Look at the time,” Laura said. “I’d better be going to get Lila and Cooper”

As she stood up, Bobbi and Hunter joined her. “We should probably get going as well, Hunter here still hasn’t finished decorating the twins nursery and they’re due in a couple of weeks”

“Tell me about it,” Laura groaned. “I was seven and half months pregnant and when I asked Clint if he’d finished Cooper’s nursery, his response: sorry, I’ve got a really urgent mission in Budapest”. Bobbi began to splutter on air and turned to glare at Clint.

“You know, I had a weird feeling that you were putting of something important in Budapest,” she said. “I just presumed it was paperwork”

“Believe me,” Laura reassured. “That’s not even the worst of it. Oh, the stories I could tell…” she trailed off as she and Bobbi linked arms as they walked out the front door towards the cars together.

“We are so screwed mate,” Hunter said to Clint, who just nodded. Hunter sighed in defeat and trailed after the two women.

***

“I hate you,” Thor grumbled.

“For the love of Odin, would you let it go already,” Sif yelled as she slammed her hands down on the dining table, sending food flying into the air. Darcy squealed as she threw herself down the bench, taking Ian and Selvig with her. Jane yelped as she caught some of the food flying around her. The Warriors Three and Loki didn’t react, they were used to it.

***

Two and a half weeks later, Tony woke at three o’clock in the morning at the Avengers Compound, to the sound of his phone ringing softly under his pillow.

“Friday,” he whispered. “Make sure the room is soundproofed and all data from this phone call is deleted”

“Yes boss,” the AI whispered back.

“Hello,” Tony muttered into the phone as he held it up to his ear. “And why are you calling at this ungodly hour?”

“Sorry to wake you,” Laura apologised. “But I just got a message from Hunter, I’m sending you the pictures now”

Tony pulled the phone away from his ear and opened up WhatsApp. A couple of seconds later, a message came through from Laura. He opened it up to see a picture of Bobbi smiling down at two small baby girls in her arms.

“What are their names?” he asked as he held the phone up to his ear. He heard shuffling in the background as Laura asked Clint, who must’ve been on the phone to Hunter.

“Skye Jemma and Isabelle May Hunter-Morse,” she finally answered. “They’re named after some old friends from S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“Well they are adorable,” Tony laughed quietly. “Tell them I said that”

“Tell them yourself,” Laura instructed. “I’ve added them to the group chat, Bobbi and Hunter, not Skye and Isabelle”

“I’m finding it very weird that there is a group chat for superheroes and co by the way,” Tony pointed out. “I’ll be back in about a week or so and I’ll bring the new parents a present”

“See you then,” Laura whispered. “Bye,” she said as she hung up the phone.

**DefoNotFugitiveAvengers**

**Me:** Congrats you guys!!! They’re adorable

 **Lance Hunter:** Thank you

 **Wanda Maximoff:** They are so cute J

Tony put his phone down and went to go back to sleep when another message came through. Tony opened his phone and barely managed to contain his snort of laughter.

 **Clint Barton:** Young lady, what are you doing on your phone???


	13. The Next Generation

25/4/17

Tony shoved his way through the front door at the farmhouse, struggling to carry several bags at once. “Tis I,” he called out. “The human credit card who keeps his fugitive buddies fed”. He dumped his bags in the kitchen and went into the other room to lob his bag onto his bed, before heading back into the living room. He was about to throw himself down onto the sofa, when he finally realised that the living room was full. He stared at the group of teenagers sat either on the sofa or in front of it. “And you are?”

A girl wearing a weird amount purple stood up from the sofa and offered her hand to shake. “I’m Kate Bishop,” she introduced as Tony wearily shook her hand. She gestured to the rest of the group. “And these are the rest of the Young Avengers. We’re like you lot-”. She clicked her fingers at him, the clicks quickly turning into finger guns. “-but gayer”. The group behind her groaned.

“That is the third time she’s said that joke today. I’ve lost count of how many times she said it all together, but it’s a lot” said a guy with brown hair sat on the floor, leaning against a bigger guy with blond hair. “I’m Billy Kaplan by the way. And this is my boyfriend, Teddy Altman”

“I apologise now for those two,” said another guy, who looked weirdly like Billy, only with white hair. “They are the most sickening couple ever- HEY”.

Billy had reached up and whacked him on the leg. “Tommy Shepherd, what is wrong with you?”. Tommy didn’t respond, just cackled with laughter.

“I’m so sorry about them,” a black guy who was wearing orange tinted glasses and was perched on the arm next to Tommy. “Mainly Tommy, but we’re all just as bad as each other. I’m David Alleyne”

“That’s okay,” Tony said. He crossed the room to where Sam and Scott were attempting to use, the admittedly large, armchair as a sofa. He clambered over the arms and managed to balance on the back leaning against the wall. He lifted his feet up and used Sam and Scott as a footstall. “We’re all big kids here as well”

“You really didn’t oversell how crazy this man is,” sassed a Latina girl with frizzy brown hair. Kate had sat herself back down and was leaning back against the other girl, who had her arm draped around Kate.

“And who is this?” Tony demanded. “Sassy McSassface?”

“Tony,” Wanda said from the beanbags in the corner. “Let Boaty McBoatface go”

“America,” the girl introduced. “America Chavez”

“And I’m Noh-Varr,” said the last guy on the sofa, who like Tommy, had white hair. “Not that anybody seems to care right now”

 “Noh-Varr?” Tony asked. “No offense, but that is not a very normal name”

“Oh, I’m an alien,” Noh-Varr replied. “I’m Kree. Teddy’s half Kree as well”

“So you’re half human?” Laura asked Teddy.

“No, I’m half Skrull,” Teddy said, as if this was completely normal. Then again, the Avengers did have a Norse god and a 3D printed sentient robot powered by a stone from the dawn of time, so who were they to judge?

“So, what do you kids do?” Tony asked. “What makes you think that you’re worthy of being a younger, gayer versions of us?”

Kate started smirking. “Well-”

“Ah, no,” Laura snapped. “No using powers indoors. If you want to show off, go outside”. America and Kate shared a look, before Kate leapt to her feet and grabbed America by the hand. She dragged her outside, snatching a bag from beside the door as they went.

“This could be entertaining,” David said as he headed outside, the others standing up to follow.

***

America dove downwards from where she had been hovering about thirty foot off the ground, her hair whipping in the wind as she went. Teddy dove down with her, using his large green wings to steer his dive. He circled back upwards, narrowly dodging blasts from some Kree weapons that Noh-Varr was shooting at him. All of a sudden, a wave of blue energy fell over Noh-Varr, blocking him from shooting at Teddy. He turned around in glared at Billy, who’s eyes were glowing blue as he held his hand out towards Noh-Varr, glowing blue lights circling his fingers.

“And what about you two?” Bruce asked.

“I used to be able to know everything that everyone around me knew,” David began to explain. “But as soon as they went out of range, I lost it. Forgot it all. And then one day, it stopped, I stopped knowing what everyone around me knew. But everything that I’d lost came back, I remembered all of it. TL;DR I am very smart”

“So do you fight or what?” Scott asked.

“The bad guys: yes,” David replied. “My overly powerful team when they’re showing off: hell no. I’m not stupid”. The others nodded in agreement.

“And I can do this,” Kate said as she lifted her bow up and shot straight at a tree about a hundred metres away. As America dove down again, she headed straight past the tree, the arrow now on course to pin her by her hoodie to the tree trunk. At the last second, a blurry figure shot out of the woods at super speed and grabbed the arrow, allowing America to fly past as if nothing had happened. The figure dashed over and dropped the arrow on the porch, before racing back off again. “And that was Tommy. He does that”

“Yeah, tell him to be careful around robots,” Wanda told them. “They’re pretty good at getting speedsters”. Clint and Laura turned to stare at her in mild horror.

“You have developed a very dark sense of humour since we’ve known you,” Clint said. “As a parent, I don’t know if I should be worried or proud”

“That was alarmingly morbid,” Laura agreed. Wanda grinned sheepishly at her parents and shrugged.

America hovered down until she was level with the porch. “I’m going to stop the boys before they destroy the place. And Kate,” she called. “Thanks for trying to pin me to the tree”. Kate smirked and blew America a kiss and America flipped her off as she flew off to deal with the boys. Noh-Varr was the first over and he immediately went to David.

“America’s dealing with the lovebirds,” he said. “But Tommy is being… well, Tommy”. David sighed and rolled his eyes.

“I’ll sort him out,” he moaned as he began to head across the field to where Tommy was whizzing around.

“Oh, this is gonna be good,” Kate muttered as she ran after David. Tony watched the Young Avengers that were left out on the field and leant over the railing to speak to where Noh-Varr was stood on the grass.

“So,” he whispered. “I’m trying to understand the team dynamics. I mean Billy and Teddy are the obvious couple, they are the most overly cute, sickeningly in love couple since-”. He paused for a moment. “-I don’t know, it’s real close between Brutasha and Claura over here. Yes I came up with ship names for my friends, don’t judge, I’m getting off topic, but, what about the others?”

“Right, I’m ninety percent sure that Tommy and David are dating,” Noh-Varr began to explain, clearly enjoying gossiping about his team mates with Tony. “But they haven’t told us yet and I’m pretty sure they think they’re being super secretive about it, but they’re not. They’re really not. As for Kate and America, I’m not so sure. I think they like each other, but I’m not sure. I don’t think even they’re sure. And as for ship names, Wickling, ThinkFast and Amerikate”

“I ship it,” Tony muttered under his breath, smirking at Noh-Varr, who nodded at him approvingly.

“What are you two talking about?” America asked as she and the other Young Avengers approached the group on the porch.

“Nothing,” Tony and Noh-Varr chorused innocently. Billy and Steve exchanged worried looks, both knowing that their teammates could not be trusted whenever they said ‘nothing’ in an innocent voice.

As everyone headed into the house, Laura leant over to Clint. “Is it just me,” she whispered to her husband. “Or do Tommy and Billy look both look weirdly like Wanda?”. Clint stared at the three teens for a moment, his head tilted to the side, before his eyes widened in shock as he realised what his wife was saying. “Thought so”

***

A few hours later, the Avengers and the Young Avengers were still sat round in the living room as Laura arrived back at the farmhouse after picking Lila and Cooper from school. Lila came hurtling out the car and into the front room, chucking her Moana backpack against the wall as she came crashing through the door. She froze in the doorway, a grin lighting up her face as she looked around at the people in the room. Her eyes landed on Kate and she ran across the room and held her arms out for Kate, who knelt onto the ground and wrapped the little girl up in a hug.

“Hey there mini me,” Kate laughed as she jumped to her feet, bringing the giggling little the girl with her. “You may think that you’re special Romanoff, but I got a Barton kid named after me first”

“Actually,” Cooper piped up from the door. “My middle name is Phillip, so Coulson’s got you all beat”

“Coulson,” America muttered under her breath. She and Billy exchanged a worried look. “After S.H.I.E.L.D. fell and after all those files got dumped on the internet, we saw about Coulson. We’re so sorry”

“Nah,” Tony joked. “Turns out he’s alive and he just decided not to tell us. Had to find out from one of Nat and Clint’s old S.H.I.E.L.D. BFFs who was working with Coulson and his crew in the secret S.H.I.E.L.D.. Also, one of Thor’s friends knew and she didn’t tell him either”

Kate, America and Billy all stared at Tony in shocked, completely speechless.

“Bobbi Morse,” Nat said. “Did you three know her?”

Kate’s head shot up. “Bobbi?” she asked. “She was the best. You’ve seen her? How is she? Did she ever get back her British ex, because if she did then I need to track down Kamala Khan because she owes me $20”

“Well this Ms Khan does owe you $20,” Laura told her, much to Kate’s delight.

“Was there any extra bet in if they had kids?” Bruce asked. “Because if there was then she owes you more”. Kate squeaked in excitement, while America behind her silently said yes to herself.

“Kamala doesn’t owe me any money, but Miles does,” she exclaimed. “Also Amadeus owes Billy some money too. When people with powers started popping up everywhere, they had a bet that over who would end up the craziest powers. Honestly, never thought it would happen to be honest”

“Sounds like you were part of a weird group at the Academy,” Scott commented.

“We were part of this program they started after S.H.IE.L.D. revealed itself to the public,” Kate explained. “We met with kids at middle and high schools to talk to the ones that were interested in possibly joining the academy after they left school. We kept in contact with a few of them afterwards. And now they owe us money. We have a group chat with some of them and few others they’ve added since. Billy here has really hit it off with the new girl”

“Riri Williams is the best,” Billy laughed. “Total nerd. She’s like fifteen years old and on a scholarship on MIT, so Tony’s probably funding her project, so she most likely says thanks”

“Well, it sounds like you lot have a nerd crew big enough to cover for us until the next big near apocalypse event, you know, when everyone will want us back again,” Tony said. “Probably sometime next May”. The Young Avengers stared at Tony in confusion.

“Tony has a weird obsession about how often our team is needed,” Clint explained. “He’s determined to figure out the exact date so that he can make sure he doesn’t do anything that will put the blame on him”

“And on that very weird note, we have to go,” Kate announced as she lowered Lila back to the ground. “Goodbye you weirdos”

As everyone was saying their goodbyes, Clint grabbed Kate and dragged her to one side. He shoved a scrap of paper into her hands. “That’s Bobbi and Hunter’s address in case you want to pop in and say hi to her as you leave,” he said as she grinned and hugged him. “So, what’s going on with you and America?”

“Me and America,” Kate spluttered. “No! What are you talking about? There is nothing going on with us! What would make you say that?”

Clint shrugged. “You two just seemed really close, and it seemed that you were flirting. A lot”

“Well there’s nothing between us,” Kate argued. “Absolutely nothing. Now if you would excuse me, we have to go”. Kate stormed off towards the van that she and the others had arrived in. She paused to glare at Clint before jumping into the back of the van.

Everyone watched from the porch as the van pulled away up the drive and out of sight into the woods. Nat was dragged away by Lila to go draw pictures and Tony went with Cooper, offering to help with the boy’s science homework. Soon, only Clint and Laura were left on the porch.

“So what were you and Kate talking about?” Laura asked.

“Nothing much, I was just trying to fix her love life,” Clint explained. Laura rolled her eyes at her husband.

“We already have four, we don’t not need another kid,” Laura joked. “But what do you mean by that”

“Maybe it wasn’t so much fixing, more sticking my nose in,” Clint said. “But maybe it will work out for the best for those two girls”

“Her and America?” Laura asked. Clint nodded. “Glad it wasn’t just me”

Clint snorted and looped his arm around his wife’s waist and the two of them headed back inside.

***

A few hours later, the Young Avengers were traveling along darkened roads as they drove away from Waverly. Tommy and David were sat next to each other up front, quietly bickering over something to do with Doctor Who. Noh-Varr was sat next to them, his head resting against the window as he blared music from through his headphones. Billy and Teddy were sat opposite Kate, both having long since fallen asleep, not long after they’d left Bobbi and Hunter’s. America was sat next to Kate, her head resting on Kate’s shoulder as she slowly drifted off to sleep. Kate looked down at the other girl and watched her as she slept, one small lock of hair that was hanging over her face, moving slightly every time she breathed. Kate’s brow burrowed as she sat there in the silence, before she let out a small sigh.

“Damn you Barton”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where the idea for the spin-off story about the Young Avengers (and more young heroes to come) came from. I'll be uploading all three chapters so far either tomorrow or the day after xx


	14. It's Stars AND Stripes

8/5/17

Laura pushed Wanda’s feet off the table as she walked through the living room. Nat snickered from where she was curled up on an armchair on the other side of the room. “Told ya” she muttered, smirking from over her book.

“Where are the guys?” Laura asked. “I’m gone for half an hour to take the kids to school and they all disappear… not that I’m complaining,” she added, observing the calm and quiet atmosphere.

“They’re outside. They’re determined to see if between them, they can smash one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s supposedly unbreakable tablets” Nat explained. “I don’t think they’ll do it, even with superpowers”

“Wait, even Bruce got involved?” Laura exclaimed. “Are we going to have a Code Green on the farm? Because I don’t think that our insurance covered that?”

“Nah, they needed an adult to supervise. I was reading and Wanda was still in bed, so Bruce had to do,” Nat laughed. “Also, neither of us particularly wanted to get involved”. Wanda in agreement nodded from where she had propped her feet back on the coffee table, still wearing her pyjamas.

“I don’t really blame either of you,” Laura sighed as she sank down onto the sofa next to Wanda. After a few moments, she fully registered what was on the screen. “Why are you watching Fox News?”

“Well,” Wanda began to explain. “It’s the first anniversary of the fight at Leipzig, so they’re running a feature called ‘365 Reasons To Hate The Avengers’. Everything is wrong and I’ve spent the last twenty minutes arguing with the TV”

“That bad huh,” Laura said with a sigh.

“Wanda’s come off the worst so far,” Nat added, still not looking up from her book.

“I’m a female, Romani, Jewish immigrant on the run from the law; they’re having a field day,” Wanda laughed. Laura shot her a sympathetic look and wrapped her arm around the girl’s shoulder. The three women continued to watch the TV, all three of them turning their heads to the side, trying to understand the picture. All three of them suddenly recoiled in disgust.

“Number 45: It has been two years since the battle of Sokovia and the last known sighting of Bruce Banner AKA The Incredible Hulk,” the television continued to prattle on. Nat’s head finally snapped up from her book as she narrowed her eyes at the TV. “Or at least the last publicly known sighting. An anonymous source from within the Avengers’ compound has told us that not only are the Avengers fully aware of where he is -one of their own private high tech facilities- but they are also keeping all media attention away from it”

“I mean, they’re kinda right,” Tony commented from the doorway. Wanda yelped in surprise, having not heard Tony come back inside. “I mean I know where Bruce is but nobody else does so this anonymous source doesn’t exist”

Natasha’s glare remained fixed on the television screen as the presenter continued to spew nonsense. “What are they saying about my fiancé?” she hissed through gritted teeth.

“The usual rubbish,” Bruce answered as he followed Tony into the room. He perched on the arm of the chair and placed one of his hands on her shoulder. Nat sighed contently as she leant into his touch, resting her head on his arm. Bruce stared the tablet he held in his hands. “This thing really is indestructible”

Wanda’s eyes flicked back to the screen. She let out a small gasp and began to frantically look around for the remote.

“What’s wrong?” Laura asked, concerned.

“Bucky,” Nat answered, pointing to the screen. Sure enough, there was a picture of the Winter Soldier on the screen. “We need to turn it off before Steve gets back in here”

“What do we need to turn bac- oh,” Steve froze mid-sentence, staring at the screen, a mournful look on his face. He moved past the others towards the kitchen and grabbed a drink as Wanda turned the TV off.

“Sorry, you shouldn’t have had to see that,” Tony apologised. By this point, Sam, Clint, Thor and Scott had arrives back in the room as well. 

"No, it's okay," Steve reassured. He stared down at his bottle for a moment. "I know he's okay back in Wakanda, but he's all I have left from before the ice and I just really miss him sometimes, you know?" 

"Geez Cap," Sam joked, attempting to lighten the mood. "Anyone would think you were in love with him" 

"I thought that much was pretty obvious," Steve muttered to himself. Everyone froze, staring at him in shock. "I just said that out loud didn't I?" 

There was a few moments of silence before Nat suddenly let out a large whoop from where she was sat, the book now lying discarded on the floor. Bruce stared down at his fiancée in amusement as she laughed manically in her seat. 

"I knew it," she cried, pointing at Steve. "I knew you weren't straight, told you Bruce" 

"Honey, I believed you," he sighed, wrapping his arm around her, pulling her closer to him as she continued to grin smugly. 

"H-how did you know?" Tony spluttered.  

"I was getting strong Bi-Fi signal from him," she explained. "Bi-Fi is like the bisexual version of a gaydar" 

Tony stared at Nat, his brow burrowed deep in concentration for a few moments. "Waaaaaaait," he drew out for several seconds. "You're bi and he's bi. Statically speaking, that's a lot of bisexuals in one room". Tony carried on talking, Steve and Nat exchanging bemused looks across the room.

Sam leant over to Scott. “Are you actually seeing this right now?” he whispered. “Because I’m not entirely sure I’m awake right now”

Scott stared at Sam for a few moments, a puzzled look on his face. All of a sudden, his hand shot out and pinched Sam’s arm. Sam winced and quickly pulled his arm back. “Well you’re definitely awake”

“Tony, stop,” Nat demanded, drawing Sam and Scott’s attention back to the rest of the group. Tony looked as if he were about to carry on talking, but was quickly silenced by a glare from Steve.

Steve walked back over to the living room where everyone was still gathered. Clint had sat down on the sofa, Wanda now sandwiched between her parents. Thor was still hovering in the doorway and Sam and Scott were sitting on the smaller sofa. Tony had at some point stood on a footstall so everyone could see him easier as he carried on talking. “So that just happened”

“You don’t say,” Tony muttered. “Wanda seems weirdly unsurprised by all of this though”. Everyone’s stares suddenly fell on the girl who was still sat on the sofa in a pair of fuzzy pink pyjamas.

“I don’t actively try to look inside people’s heads, but sometimes they think so loud I cannot help but hear every thought,” she explained. “And when I first met Bucky, that’s what Steve was like. I really couldn’t help but know”

“It’s really hard to remember how powerful you are when you’re wearing Hello Kitty pyjamas,” Tony commented. Wanda shot him a sarcastic smile and a double thumbs up, which he quickly returned. “Thor, you’re looking rather unimpressed about all of this”

“Asgard doesn’t really share your concept of sexual identities. There are sexual acts, that’s it,” he explained.

“So Thor’s pan,” Tony announced. “Am I the only who feels like they’re learning a lot about the team today?”

Clint met Laura’s eyes over Wanda’s head. It looked like they could be here a while.

***

Nothing else got mentioned on the subject until later when they were all sat down eating dinner. Lila was talking a mile a minute about her day at school.

“I just had a thought,” Tony suddenly interrupted. Everyone around the table winced and Bruce held his head in his hands. “When the Young Avengers were here there was like an almost equal ratio of straight people to not straight people”

“Tony, let it go already,” Natasha moaned.

***

As everyone was heading to bed that night, Wanda grabbed Steve as he walked past her door on the way back from the bathroom.

“I just wanted to apologise about the whole reading your mind thing from earlier,” she said, shifting awkwardly. “I know I’m not meant to anymore, but like I said, sometimes I really can’t help it, I ju-”

She was cut off as Steve reached over and wrapped his arms around the girl. “That’s okay, I know you didn’t mean to,” he reassured. “If anything, I should be the one apologising to you for thinking to loud. I should’ve known better. What did you hear anyway?” he asked cautiously.

She pulled away from him and smirked. “Don’t worry, I’m pretty good at tuning it all out. All I heard was a constant stream of ‘Bucky Bucky Bucky Bucky Bucky…’ in a very affectionate tone”. Steve turned to begin to walk out of the room, but Wanda grabbed him by the wrist before he could. “If it helps, from what I couldn’t help but overhear from him, he feels the same way about you”

Steve smiled at her as she left the room. “Thanks, but bed, it’s late”

“Hey,” she protested. “You’re not my Dad and you’re not in charge of the team anymore, you can’t tell me what to do”

“No, but I can,” Clint argued as he walked past. “Bed”

Wanda sighed as she threw herself down on her bed. Steve walked out of the room, high fiving Clint as he went. Clint leant back into the room. “Night sweetie”. He was able to narrowly dodge the pillow she threw at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Steve Rogers is bi. Natasha Romanoff is bi. Thor is pan. Fight me xx


	15. Love Love Peace Peace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you imagine the chaos that would be caused by having two Europeans living in the farmhouse and another nearby during Eurovision week? xx

13/5/17

It started on the Monday when Wanda came downstairs wearing a garish glittered t-shirt of the Sokovian flag. Tony frowned for a moment, unsure of what to say.

“One question: what?” he was eventually able to stutter out.

Wanda looked down at her t-shirt and shrugged. “Just supporting my country”

Tony exchanged a confused look with Scott. “Clint,” he called over his shoulder. “What is up with your daughter?”.

Clint walked over and joined Tony and Scott. He took one look at what Wanda was wearing, pulling a confused face. “Sweetie, what are you wearing?”

Wanda looked down at the t-shirt in confusion. “I have a flag like this in my room,” she argued. “I thought you’d recognise the Sokovian flag by now”

“Young lady, you know that’s not what I meant,” Clint scolded.

“She’s obviously supporting her country,” Nat said as she walked through the kitchen. She was wearing a t-shirt similar to Wanda’s, only her’s had the Russian flag. “Only, I’m pretty sure Sokovia didn’t qualify”

“At least we weren’t banned!” Wanda half yelled back to Nat as she threw herself down onto the sofa in the living room.

“I don’t know what that means, but why are you both wearing those shirts?” Clint asked.

“You know how the saying goes: You can break the rules of fashion-” Wanda said in sing-song voice.

“And your chance to win shall grow,” Nat sang back.

The three men exchanged confused looks as Bruce walked into the room. He took one look at Wanda’s t-shirt and sighed. “I’m guessing Nat gave you that t-shirt”

***

Things carried on that Tuesday, when Bruce and Tony attempted some “science”. Laura preferred the term life endangerment.

Hunter had offered to take the kids into school and then he and Bobbi joined them at the farmhouse. This meant that Laura could sleep in late for once, waking when she felt like it and not when an alarm clock said so.

Or at least that’s what she thought.

In reality she was woken by the downstairs smoke alarm. She bolted out of bed and down the stairs in time to see Steve dive over the sofa and shoot the small fire in the corner with the fire extinguisher from the kitchen. Laura heard a small gasp from behind her as Wanda followed her into the room, obviously having also just gotten out of bed.

“Open the window,” she demanded as she reached out with her hands, red lights glowing in the smoke as it began to twist its way towards the window. Clint reached over and slammed the window open. Wanda flicked her wrist and the smoke flowed out the window like water down a stream.

“All clear,” Tony yelled, brushing ashes off his top. The front door was shoved open as Bobbi and Hunter entered, each clutching one of the twins close to their chests, they’d clearly dashed outside when the fire had started.

“Do I even want to know what happened?” Laura asked.

Bruce opened his mouth as if to start explain the whole experiment and where it went wrong, but Natasha, who was picking small bits of solidified goo of his shirt, spoke before he could. “A burning fake piano”

Wanda and Hunter giggled at her response and the three of them started quietly humming a weird catchy tune.  

"But it was a pot plant that caught fire," Tony whispered to himself. 

***

It didn't end on the Wednesday. Cooper had gotten a new pair of rollerblades from Bobbi and Hunter for his birthday, so Nat had taken it upon herself to teach him what to do. Which was how she'd ended gliding around the small patio round the back of the house on a pair of rollerblades she'd dug out the back of a cupboard. 

Wanda was watching her through the window from where she was helping Laura make dinner. A small grin spread across her face as she dashed out the room. She used her powers to open the door, allowing to skid outside. She clicked her fingers and pointed at Nat. 

"And a Russian man on skates!" she half sang half shouted to the same tune she'd been humming the day before. 

Nat ended up laughing so hard that she lost her balance and ended up flat out on the floor, still laughing. 

***

On the Thursday, there was lull in the crazy, well at least the new type of crazy. The others thought it was over, but it was merely the calm before the storm.

***

It was Friday evening and the Hunter-Morse family had joined them at the farmhouse for what they thought was going to be a calm evening in of pizza and a movie. Or at least, that’s what Bobbi thought.

Wanda was sat on the floor with Nat, a large bowl of popcorn sat between the two of them. They were both wearing the glittery flag t-shirt again. Hunter all but kicked the door open as he and Bobbi arrived. He was wearing his Damn The Yanks t-shirt, only a piece of paper had was stuck on with sellotape had changed it to say Damn The Aussies.

“You will be the best!” he yelled as he ran over to the other two and threw himself down onto the floor next to them. The three of them acted as if they were conducting a piece of music, and from the way they were flapping their arms around, it was the same piece.

“Love love peace peace,” the three of them suddenly sang in unison.

“Party for everybody,” Hunter sang on his own.

“Peace peace love love,” they sang together again.

“More tricks in a hamster wheel,” Nat and Wanda sang, their arms now linked.

“Love peace peace love. And we can guarantee, that you will be the best,” they all sang. Wanda used her powers to pluck the TV remote from her dad’s hand. “And win the Eurovision Song Contest. And win the Eurovision Song Contest”

Wanda turned the TV on as the intro to Eurovision started. Clint and Laura exchanged panicked looks.

“Holy-” Tony paused for a moment, staring at Lila as she tried to think of something he could say in front of the smaller agents. “-guacamole, I have been living with Eurotrash on and off for years. I do not know what to do right now”

“Eurovision,” Bobbi said, a deadpan look on her face. “I should’ve known”

“Shut up,” Nat hissed, throwing a handful of popcorn at her. “It’s starting”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for Life On The Farm for now. I'm working on another chapter, but that will take another few days, possibly a week, to complete. It will be set immediately following Spider-Man: Homecoming and will introduce Pepper and Peter to the story. I will post that ASAP. 
> 
> Hopefully, I'll be able to post the first three chapters of The Next Generation tomorrow. If not, it will be within the next few days. I'm hoping to introduce the Champions very soon, as well as old members of the Young Avengers and other teen heroes, like Ironheart and Unstoppable Wasp.
> 
> I'm also open to suggestions about where to go next with Life On The Farm and would love to know what you think. Please leave a comment with any ideas or what you think of the story so far, or message me either here on Wattpad (@kamalaforpresident). xx


	16. Coming Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is set after Spider-Man: Homecoming, so spoilers if you haven't seen that already. Part of it is also set after The Next Generation chapter three, so if you haven't read that yet, more spoilers. xx

“A holiday does sound nice,” Pepper admitted to Tony as they pulled outside a tower block in Queens. “But why are we bringing the kid?”

Tony sighed as they climbed out the car and headed towards the entrance. “His aunt just found that he’s-”. He cut himself off and looked around, making sure that nobody was listening. “-Spider-Man,” he whispered, leaning in closer to her.

Pepper gave him a mock angry look. She couldn’t keep it up for long though, not with Tony grinning at her the way he was. The two of them climbed into the lift and Tony selected Peter’s floor. As they were waiting for the lift to go up, Pepper held her hand up, admiring the ring.

“Are we going to talk about how Happy has been carrying this ring for the last nine years, and we didn’t get together until seven years ago?” she asked. “You’ve had it since you got back from Afghanistan”

“Knowing you were here, waiting for me to come back, that was the one thing that kept me going. I knew then that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life without you by my side,” he confessed. Pepper blinked back a few tears after hearing that.

“I could’ve distracted them,” she pointed out, quickly changing the subject before the tears had a chance to spill.

“I know, but I was actually going to propose very soon,” Tony admitted. “Like, within the next few days. Although, a few of my friends are going to kill me for not telling them first”

Before Pepper could ask not who these friends were, the lift doors opened. Tony grabbed her hand, interlacing their fingers, and led her towards the Parker’s apartment. He knocked on the door and was greeted by a very angry and scary looking Aunt May.

“Why?” she demanded as she ushered Pepper and Tony inside. “Why would you encourage him like that? Do you have any idea how much danger he’s been in? How many times he could’ve gotten himself killed?!”

“I am fully aware of how much danger he put himself in,” Tony replied. “But I knew there was no point trying to stop him. That’s why I made the suit the way I did: with the parachute in the back and the safety protocols, to keep him safe. I even gave him his own AI to help him!”

“You mean the Training Wheels and Baby Monitor Protocols,” May huffed. “I’ll admit, those were a pretty good idea”

“Well at least they were before Ned was able to hack the suit and disable the Training Wheels Protocol,” Tony complained. “And then Peter removed the tracker, which really didn’t help with the Babysitter Protocol”. Both Pepper and May stared at Tony in confusion. “The Babysitter Protocol means there’s always a cloaked suit within a five mile radius of Peter in case he gets himself into too much trouble and needs help. Did Peter not find that one?”

“No I didn’t,” Peter answered from where he was sat in the corner on his suitcase.

“When did you get here?” Tony asked.

“I’ve been here the whole time,” he said. “But nobody noticed me”. He stood up and Tony grabbed his suitcase. Peter lifted a backpack from the floor and shrugged it over his shoulder.

“Have you got everything?” May asked as she fussed over her nephew. “Clothes? Underwear? Toothbrush? School work?”

“Don’t worry Aunt May,” he reassured. “I double checked my bag this morning. I’ve got everything”

“School think that you’re going to a science convention with Mr Stark. I talked at them until they just gave up and let you go,” May rambled. “But you better do all the work they’ve given you”

“Don’t worry, Iron Dad will make sure he does all his homework,” Tony said with a mock salute.

“Rhodey started the whole Iron Dad thing,” Pepper explained to a confused Peter and May. “And Tony will not let it go”

“I’ll make sure that Peter comes back with plenty of evidence of science, because there will be plenty of time for science,” Tony laughed as he began to pull Peter’s suitcase out of the apartment. “Although, we’ve been banned from doing any form of science indoors”. He carried on talking about science as he disappeared out the door and back down the hall.

“I don’t know what ‘fire’, ‘pot plant’, ‘fake piano’ or ‘Eurovision’ have to do with science and knowing Tony, I’m not sure I want to. I can’t believe I’m going to marry the idiot,” Pepper said, muttering the last part under her breath. “You ready to go?”

Peter nodded and May pulled her nephew into a bone-crushing hug, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “You’ll call me every single day, okay?” she ordered.

Peter nodded and followed Pepper out of the apartment. He paused briefly as he turned out of the door to wave one last little goodbye, before he jogged to catch up with Pepper and Tony by the lift.

When they got down to the car, Tony loaded Peter’s suitcase into the boot next to his and Pepper’s. Tony got in the driver’s seat and Pepper in the passenger’s. Peter sat in the back behind Pepper.

“So where are we going?” he asked.

Tony laughed. “Sorry kid, can’t tell either of you. It’s against the rules”

Pepper and Peter exchanged a worried look in the rear-view mirror. But they, both trusted Tony and his judgement about where they were going, wherever it may be.

***

They’d been travelling for several hours now and had just crossed into Ohio. The sun had just set and the sky was a beautiful shade of deep blue, small stars twinkling over the countryside.

“It’s getting late,” Pepper whispered to Tony, “Do we have much further to go?”

Tony snorted. “We’re not even in Iowa yet. It’ll take us at least another day to get there. There’s a motel just ahead. It’s very small and quiet and they don’t advertise on the internet that Tony Stark stays there”

A calm silence fell over the car for a moment. “So, we’re going to Iowa?” Pepper asked, breaking the silence.

“Don’t worry, you’ll love it,” Tony reassured. He chuckled. “It’s not the same level of crazy and busy like in New York. Actually, we’re pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but you get used to it very quickly. I love it there”

“The way you talk about this place, you make it sound like home,” Pepper observed quietly, trying not to wake Peter who’d fallen asleep over an hour ago. “Is it?”

“Is it what?”

“Is it home to you, Tony?”

Tony sucked in a breath. “I’d never really thought about it in that way,” he admitted. “But, yes. That place does feel like home to me. And the people there are like my family. Being there is like being in an entirely separate world compared to being at the compound. The only thing missing was you. And now you’re going to be there too”

“That is probably the sappiest thing I’ve heard in my entire life Mr Stark,” Peter muttered sleepily.

Pepper turned around to see Peter stretching in his seat. “I can’t help but agree with you,” she laughed. Tony pouted at the two of them. “But it was also pretty sweet”

“Are we nearly there yet?” Peter asked.

Tony laughed slightly at Peter’s childish tone. “We’ve still got another eight hours to go”

“But we’ve already been driving for nine,” he whined, flopping back in his seat.

“We’re stopping overnight first,” Pepper reassured. Peter perked up a little at the thought of being able to get out the car for a while. Tony smiled at the tow of them as he pulled into the motel carpark. He paid for a family room and the three of them dragged their bags across the car park. As soon as they entered the room, Peter stalked across the room and threw himself down on the single bed by the window. He didn’t bother to change into pyjamas, just went straight to sleep.

“Aww, lil spider is tired,” Tony mocked. Pepper whacked him lightly in the arm, shushing him before he could wake Peter up. They both changed quickly and climbed into bed.

***

It was just gone five in the afternoon as they drove through a small town in Iowa: Waverly, according to the sign they’d passed on their way in. Tony pulled them up at a large blue house on quiet street on the outskirts of the town.

“Wait here a minute,” he instructed the other two. He ran out of the car and to the door. He knocked and waited a few seconds. A tall blonde woman with a young baby balanced on her hip answered the door. She smiled when she saw Tony and gave him a one armed hug. Tony ruffled the baby’s blonde hair as the woman leant back into the house and called for someone else. Tony and the woman spoke for a minute before a man, only about an inch shorter than the woman, appeared at the door. he had a large clear box filled with cookies in one hand and a twin of a baby in the other. He passed the box to Tony, who thanked the two of them and turned back towards the car.

“Who are they?” Pepper asked as Tony got back in the car.

“Hold these,” he told Peter, passing the box back to him. “That’s Lance Hunter and Bobbi Morse. The girls are Izzy and Skye. Don’t tell anyone about any of this, but they’re ex-S.H.I.E.L.D.. They both there when it was being rebuilt after the whole Hydra thing. Bobbi used to work at the old S.H.I.E.L.D. as well. She used to go on missions with Clint and Nat. She had codename and everything: Mockingbird. They both had to leave about a year and a half ago. They moved here not long before Bobbi had the twins, Waverly recommended by everyone’s favourite pirate, Nicky Fury. Bobbi texted me when we stopped for lunch. She asked if I could stop and pick these up for Laura. You’ll meet them properly tomorrow”

“Who’s Laura?” Pepper asked.

“She and her husband own the farmhouse we’re staying at,” Tony explained, as they pulled back onto the road. “They live just outside of town. You’ll love the whole family. Within a week, the kids will be calling you Auntie Pepper. Peter, you’re actually younger than the eldest kid; she’s nineteen and I think you two are going to get along. Oh, and I hope you like animals”

“Why?” Pepper asked nervously. While she wasn’t scared of animals, she wasn’t exactly their biggest fan. “How many animals are there Tony?”

“Just a one eyed dog,” he reassured. “And some chickens. Couple of rabbits and guinea pigs, my bad. And what’s basically a small herd of horses”

“A whole herd!” Pepper exclaimed.

“There’s only eight of them,” Tony argued. “Which technically counts as a herd. I looked it up- you only need six for herd, which means the four ponies isn’t technically enough for another herd”

“For crying out loud,” Pepper muttered as they drove out of town. Nobody said anything for a few moments as they passed wide open fields of crops.

“I like animals,” Peter piped up from the back of the car. “As long as they’re not spiders”

Tony laughed loudly at Peter’s comment and Pepper sighed at the two of them. About ten minutes after they left town, Tony turned the car off the main road and down a rough dirt track into a large wooded area. The woodland was fenced off and large private property signs were placed every few metres. Tony continued to expertly navigate the car down the bumpy road that twisted and turned as if he’d done so hundreds of times before. He probably had, Pepper realised. Through the trees, Pepper spotted a tiny clearing with a small one storey cabin in the centre.

“Is that it?” she asked.

“That is what we commonly refer to as the ‘The Cabin In The Woods’,” Tony explained. “Makes it sound a lot creepier than it actually is, which is kind of the whole point. If Lila and Cooper think it’s creepy, they won’t want to go anywhere near it, which means that everyone else can use it for things that seven and ten year olds should not be involved with”

Pepper and Peter both eyed him suspiciously.

“What kind of things Mr Stark?” Peter asked nervously.

“Science,” Tony said. “Especially when I’m involved. That place has become a bit of a mini lab since I got banned from doing any science in the house”

“That is definitely not what I thought you were going to say,” Pepper whispered.

“Oh, that too,” Tony grinned. Pepper flushed bright red.

“I’m still here,” Peter said from the back seat. Pepper groaned and buried her head in her hands as Tony laughed at Peter’s discomfort.

“We’re here,” Tony announced as the car emerged from the woods.

Pepper gasped at the sight before her. They were about a hundred metres away from a large white farmhouse and red barn, a small row of stables poking out from round the back of the barn. The farmhouse lay in a dip in the land, small hills with gentle slopes rising on either side of it. Just over the brow of one of the small hills, Pepper could just make out the glisten of a small lake, or a very large pond, she wasn’t quite sure which. Beyond the lake/pond, she could see a large fenced off field with a small herd of horses and a not-herd of ponies grazing. The whole area was split off into a few large fenced off fields, with beaten down tracks connecting them. The field closest to her had several small stacks of logs of varying heights, all of which had been spray painted in various bright colours. There was a small area of dry and dusty ground outside the house with a couple of cars and a tractor parked there, and just beyond that, there was some children’s play equipment. In the distance, Pepper could just about make out the shapes of a group of seven people walking towards the field with the horses. The whole area was completely circled by the woods, completely cutting the small farm off from the rest of the world.

The farmhouse itself was not very far from the woods, only about ten metres or so from the back of the land. In that space, there was a well-cared for vegetable garden and a small coop full of chickens. The building was two floors and Pepper could see windows set into the sloping roof, meaning there was an attic. A large porch ran along the front of the house, with some deck chairs, a swing seat and a barbeque looking out over the fields.

A little girl was sat on the front steps of the porch, feet on the step in front of her. She was wearing a light blue flowery dress, white leggings and mud splattered purple trainers. Her face lit up when the car pulled up in front of the house, a toothy grin spreading across her face, showing a gap where she was missing a front tooth.

“MOM, UNCLE TONY’S BACK!” she yelled. She raced down the steps and latched herself onto Tony’s legs as he unloaded the boot. “I missed you. Also, Auntie Bobbi called, she said you were brining cookies”

Tony smiled at her. “Let’s go inside and then you can have a cookie, okay?”. She nodded and raced ahead. “That’s Lila,” he introduced to the others. “I guarantee by the end of the day you will know her middle name, the amount of trouble she causes. This way”. Tony led Pepper and Peter into the house. He placed his bags by the base of the staircase and headed into the living room. Pepper and Peter copied him and stood awkwardly behind Tony, who’d taken the cookies from Peter and was giving one to each of the three children sat in the room.

“Hi,” greeted Lila. “These are my brothers Cooper and Nate,” she introduced, pointing to a ten year old and a two year old in turn.

“Tony, it’s good to see you,” a woman said as she came into the room. She was quite short with long brown hair. The woman reached over to Tony hugged him.

Behind him, Peter heard a quiet pair of footsteps head down the creaky old stairs. He turned around to greet whoever it was. “What?” he said in a barely audible whisper when he saw who was stood in the doorway.

“I’m Laura,” the woman introduced. “My husband and the others are just bringing the horses and ponies in from the field, so you can say hi to them soon. You must be Pepper and- oh! Peter, I see you’ve already met my eldest”

Pepper spun around to see Peter staring blankly at Wanda Maximoff. “That’s your daughter?” she stammered as she turned back to Laura.

“Well,” Laura sighed. “Not technically. She’s my unofficially adopted daughter. But, as soon as this Accords mess gets sorted out, my husband and I are going to fix that”

“And who did you say your husband was again?” Pepper asked.

“Dad’s Hawkeye,” Lila spoke up from the sofa, which was no covered in a fine layer of cookie crumbs. She grinned innocently at Pepper, by now fully knowing how weird and shocking most adults seemed to find this new bit of information.

Pepper blinked rapidly at the small girl, before turning back to her fiancé. “Tony, why did you never mention any of this before?” she demanded.

“Well first of all, I’m going to start by saying how much I hate lying to you,” he began to explain. “But I did to protect this place. The only reason this place is as safe as it is, is because of how secret it’s kept. It survived the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. because it wasn’t even mentioned on any of their files. We avoid talking about this place when we’re not here. And if we have to, we never use names, only ever code names. And nobody gets told about this place until they’ve been here. I knew Clint three years before he told me, Bruce, Thor and Steve. Steve! It took him three years to trust Captain America. And at the end of the day, all the lying is for them”. He pointed to the three children. Nate was playing with a toy train on the floor and Cooper was attempting to read while Lila annoyed him. “It’s so they can grow up peacefully and safe”

Pepper wasn’t sure what to say.

“If it helps, you aren’t even having the biggest freak out over all of this,” Laura offered. “Sam passed out. He just straight up collapsed. And Tony has been going on and on and on about bringing you for months”

“Seriously, he wouldn’t shut up about it,” Wanda complained. “He promised he’d shut up about it now. Do you want some help with your bags?”

“Why aren’t you helping the others bring the horses in?” Tony asked.

“Teenage rebellion,” Wanda replied coldly. “Also, I sprained my wrist playing ultimate Frisbee with the others. The Frisbee being the shield”. Wanda waved the offending wrist slightly.

Tony laughed at the girl. “Well thanks for the word of warning. And the offer to help with the bags, but we’re downstairs”

“Actually, we were finally able to sort out the attic,” Laura explained. “We emptied it out and using some plaster board and Scott’s masters in electrical engineering we managed to fit in a load more rooms. It means everyone’s got their own space and we’re a lot less crowded in downstairs”

“Come on, I’ll show you,” Wanda said. She flicked her wrist and red lights surrounded the suitcases, lifting them into the air. Tony, Pepper and Peter followed her to the next floor and along the landing. She stopped by a door that was sandwiched between the bathroom and Bruce and Nat’s room.

“I thought this was an airing cupboard” Tony said as Wanda opened the door.

“That’s kinda the point,” Wanda pointed out. She led them up a spiral staircase that opened out in a small landing. There were seven doors: two were one the wall to the left and another two were on the wall opposite. Part of the wall on the right stuck further out than the rest. There was a door the front of this section, and another just visible round the corner. To the right of the staircase was a nook lined with packed bookshelves and a few beanbags with varying Avengers themed patterns on the floor. A final door was sandwiched between the bookshelves and the wall that stuck out. Natural light poured in from the sky light set into the sloping roof.

Small frames were placed on the walls. Tony took a closer look at them. One of them was the group photo from Christmas, another of the Avengers in the shawarma place after the Battle of New York. There was one of Bruce and Nat in Fiji as well as family portraits of the Barton family. Some of the frames had hand drawn pictures, a mixture pf Steve, Cooper and Lila’s pieces.

Somebody had stuck little printed out signs on six of the doors; one had a picture of Cap’s shield, another of Mjolnir, another of the arc reactor, a falcon and a diagram of  a Pym Particle. On the door of the little room on the right wall was a WC sign.

“I’m guessing this is me and Pepper,” Tony said, pointing to the door with the arc reactor sig. Wanda nodded, and Tony and Pepper headed in with their bags.

Wanda opened the door next to theirs, the one without a sign on the door. “This is you”

Peter thanked her and watched as she headed back down the stairs, yelling at her siblings to not eat all the cookies, before he headed into the room. It was small but cosy. There were two single beds with a little bedside cabinet between them. There was a dresser and a rail with a set of coat hangers set into a small alcove in the wall. A long row of shelves ran along the opposite wall. As peter began to unpack, he heard a timid knock at the door. He opened it to see the little girl from downstairs stood in the doorway, clutching a sheet of paper to her tightly to her chest.

“Hey,” he greeted. “Lila, is it”

She nodded. “And you’re Peter. Spider-Man,” she stated. Peter’s eyes widened comically as he stammered out nonsense syllables. “Don’t try and lie. The suits on your bed”

Peter turned around to look. His suit was half out of his suitcase, forgotten with the rest of his unpacking. “Yeah I’m Spider-Man. But don’t tell any of your friends you know who Spider-Man is,” he begged.

Lila huffed and put her hands on her hips. “I’ve had Team Cap living in my house since last May and the rest of the Avengers since Christmas. And I haven’t told anyone. Your secret’s safe with me”

Peter smiled at the little girl. “Thanks. What did you come up here for?”

She held the piece of paper out to Peter. “I felt bad that you didn’t have anything to go on your door, so I drew you this”. Peter looked down at the picture. It was bright red and black and Peter quickly recognised it as his mask. Lila looked up at him expectantly.

“Thanks,” he said.

The little girl beamed at him. “Mom said that dinner will be ready in about half an hour, but you can come down before then and meet everyone else before then if you want,” she babbled. She began to turn to walk away, but stopped and quickly hugged Peter’s waist, too small to reach any higher. She let go and skipped back to the stairs. “Hey Uncle Steve, Uncle Sam, Uncle Scott, Uncle Thor,” Peter heard her say, shortly followed by the sound of the door closing. A few moments later, the four men she’d greeted appeared at the top of the stairs.

“Hi, I’m Peter,” he introduced nervously with a small wave.

Sam raised one eyebrow at Peter. “Tony really wasn’t kidding when he said that Spider-Man was a kid”. Scott snorted at Sam’s comment.

“Queens,” Steve greeted coldly.

“Brooklyn,” Peter replied in the same tone, a small smirk on his lips.

Steve smiled at the boy. “Seeing that you really are just a kid, I almost feel bad for hitting you like that at the airport. But, you did steal my shield”

Peter laughed lightly. “Just after my friend Ned found out that I’m Spider-Man, we were in gym class and they were showing the fitness program videos and I told him I’d stolen your shield. He was pretty impressed”

“Good to know I’m still useful for something,” Steve said with a grin.

Thor clapped him on the back hard enough that even Cap winced. “Do not be so hard on yourself captain. One day soon the people of Midgard will realise that they need us and we will be welcomed back without the Accords. The people of Xandar welcome and accept the Guardians, even though they are all former criminals. You are all heroes and they’ll see that soon enough”. Thor flashed them all a glowing grin and disappeared into the room with the picture of Mjolnir on the door, closest to the stairs.

Sam looked down at his dirty t-shirt. “I’m going to go change out of this before dinner,” he said. He walked to the room opposite Thor’s, past the bookshelves and small toilet room. “You should probably change too Tic-Tac: Kitty kicked a load of dirt in your face”. He closed the door and they were left being stared down by a very judgemental picture of a falcon that had been stuck on the door.

“So, what’ve you got there?” Steve asked, pointing to the piece of paper in Peter’s hands.

“Oh, Lila drew this for me,” he explained holding it up to show Steve. “She thought I should have something to go on my door like you guys have”

Steve smiled. “That was very sweet of her. Do you need something to stick it on her door, because I have some Blu Tack in my room”. Peter nodded and Steve opened the door with the shield on and beckoned for Peter to follow. He stepped into the room. There was a double bed just next to the door with a dresser against the opposite wall. Two single beds were placed at either end of the room. Whoever had decorated the room obviously had a sense of humour. The soft carpet underfoot was red and the walls had been painted a pale blue, the sloping roof white. Each of the beds had a plush cushion in the shape of the shield. Peter walked over to look at the two framed pictures on the dresser as Steve rummaged through the shelves on the wall next to the spare bed on the far side of the room. One of the frames was of an old photo of Steve and Bucky, the other and old drawing of a monkey on a unicycle.

“Here,” Steve said as he handed Peter a small blob on Blu Tack.

“Thanks, um… erm Captain,” Peter stammered out.

“Steve,” he corrected. “Please, just call me Steve. Although, the others call me Cap a lot, so you can call me that to if you like”

Peter nodded. “Lila said that dinner is going to be ready soon, should I come down now or…” he trailed off.

“Come down now and you can meet everyone in a non-fight situation, which I think will be nice,” Steve said. He walked past Peter and out of the room. Peter followed him, making sue to close the door behind him. Steve knocked on all the other doors, announcing that they were going down for dinner soon. Thor, Sam and Scott all quickly appeared at their doors. Scott leaned over and whacked harshly on Tony’s door, almost punching the billionaire in the face when he opened the door halfway through the knocking.

“Give a guy a minute to answer the door,” he snapped. He leant back into the room to talk to Pepper. “You coming Pep?”

“I’ll catch up with you in a minute,” she called back.

“I just need to stick this on my door Mr Stark,” Peter said, waving the picture Lila had drawn for him.

“Seeya down there kid,” Tony replied as he headed towards the stairs. He turned back to face Peter when Steve elbowed him in the side. “Oh, and kid? Just call me Tony”

Peter heard Steve mutter “was that so hard?” as he stuck the Spider-Man drawing to the door.

Pepper came out of her room just as he shut his door. “Please tell me that I’m not the only one finding all of this weird?”

“Don’t worry, it’s not just you,” Peter reassured. They came out of the door at the bottom of the stairs just in time to see a flash of red hair disappear down the stairs. “Was that Black Widow?”

“Yeah, that was Nat,” answered a voice from the room next to them.

Pepper yelped in surprise at the new voice. She gasped as her eyes landed on a sheepish looking Bruce. She muttered his name in disbelief as she threw arms around her friend who she hadn’t heard from in over two years.

“Hey,” Wanda greeted as she left her room. “I see you’ve found Bruce”

Pepper pulled away from him and lightly hit him in the arm. “Where the hell have you been? How could you just leave us? How could you do this to Nat?” she demanded.

Bruce rubbed his arm where she’d hit him. “I’m sorry. It was a terrible thing to do and I’m really sorry. I was staying in Fiji, doing what I used to do before Nat recruited me for the Avengers. She and I came back here about a week before Christmas. We went back once a couple of months ago to sort the house out, but other than that, we’ve been here for the best part of a year now”

“So,” Pepper said in an inquisitive voice, crossing her arms and taking a step towards him. “You and Nat, huh?”

Bruce grinned, flushing slightly. “After she left the compound and came out to me in Fiji, it took us a few weeks to sort everything out between us,” he explained. “We had a lot to talk about, what with me leaving her the way I did and her basically being a fugitive no. Eventually, we were able to work everything out. But, I knew she was missing Clint and Laura and the kids, so we came here for Christmas and pretty much moved in. It was a long road to get here, but we’re both finally in a place in our lives where we can be happy-”. He paused and looked over at Wanda, the two of them sharing a knowing look. “-really happy”

“Aw, Bruce”. Pepper pulled him in for another quick hug. As soon as she let him go, the two of them headed downstairs. Peter hung back to speak to Wanda.

“What was with that evil smirk between you and Bruce?” he asked.

From below them, Pepper let out a loud squeal, “Wanna come find out?” she grinned. She raced off down the stairs and Peter followed her. When they reached the living room, they saw Pepper holding Nat’s hand towards her face, admiring the ring. It was a silver band with a deep red gem and smaller bright green gems set on either side.

“When did this happen?” Pepper exclaimed.

“Christmas,” Nat replied. “We’d just finished opening all the presents and I was talking to Laura. Then, the whole room just went silent, which is how I knew something was going on because this lot are never silent. I looked around and Bruce was down on one knee. I won’t even try and deny the fact that I cried a little, because Clint took photos, so he has proof”

“I’m so happy for you two,” Pepper beamed.

“And I’m happy for you and Tony as well,” Nat replied. She looked past Pepper to shoot Tony a glare. “Although somebody neglected to mention any of this to us”

Tony didn’t respond, merely shrugged.

“That’s not even the best part,” Pepper added. “Apparently, Happy has been carrying this ring around since 2008. Nine whole years”

“Well damn,” Steve muttered from where he was sat on the sofa. He had a one eyed dog draped over his lap and Lila was perched on the sofa arm, the two of them petting the big dog.

“And that’s coming from the world’s leading authority on waiting too long,” Bruce joked. Steve smiled a small, sad smile in response.

“Peggy?” asked Pepper in a sympathetic voice. She’d heard from Nat how hard it had been for him when he’d heard about her death the year before.

“Bucky,” he replied, more stating a fact than asking a question. He carried on petting the dog calmly, although a small mischievous grin crept ever so slightly onto his face.

Pepper blinked a few times, before leaning over to whisper to Tony. “I missed something, didn’t I?” she whispered.

Tony snorted slightly. “I’ll catch you up with everything later”

Before anybody else could say anything, a timer went off in the kitchen.

“Dinner’s ready!” Laura announced.

***

“-and those are the chickens: Popcorn, Krushem, Zinger and Original Recipe,” Wanda introduced.

It was the day after Pepper and Peter had arrived. After breakfast, Peter had headed back upstairs to his room. He’d felt a little awkward at the Barton farm, surrounded by the Avengers and family. Pepper was fitting in better than he was, after all, she already knew half the people there and Lila in particular had was quickly taking to her. She was like that, according to Black Widow, who the little girl called Auntie Nat. She was quick to cuddle up to someone and wrap them round her little finger. Lila had smiled innocently, as if she had no idea what Nat was talking about. He’d been upstairs for almost an hour, sat cross-legged on his bed doing some homework, when Wanda knocked on his door.

“Why’d you drag me out here?” he asked as they walked away from the coop of cruelly named chickens.

“You were hiding away in your room and I thought I’d give you a tour,” she answered as she led him back round the front of the house. They carried on past the parked cars and down one of the dirty paths beaten into the ground. Set just round the bend of one of the small hills that made up the landscape of the farm, was what appeared to be a small children’s play area.

“Why is there a playpark on the farm?” Peter asked.

“Tony paid for it to be put in last year,” Wanda explained. “It was Lila and Cooper’s Christmas present from him. Well, one of them at least. I say Lila and Cooper’s, but we all end up playing here with them any way”. She sat herself on one of the swings and kicked herself backward, beginning to swing back and forth. “That was a good Christmas”

“Wait, Christmas?” Peter spluttered as he sat down on the other swing. “I thought you were Jewish"

“I could lie and tell you that I was merely taking part in the non-religious side of the festivities for the spirit of family and coming together at the end of the year to celebrate, but that’s not true,” she laughed as she swung herself higher and higher. “Free stuff, loads of food and a legitimate reason to not take your pyjamas off all day”

“That makes sense,” Peter admitted. He began to copy Wanda and swing alongside her. A car pulled out of the woods and parked outside the farmhouse. The two people, Bobbi and Hunter, that Peter had seen the day before climbed out and lifted the twins from the back seats.

“We should probably go back in now and say hi to them,” Wanda said as she began to reluctantly slow down her swinging.

“Or we could stay out here a few minutes longer?” Peter suggested and kicked himself further into the air.

“Oh it is on,” she laughed. She stuck her hands out slightly, blasting red energy out behind her to send herself soaring further forward and higher into the air.

“Hey, that’s cheating,” Peter protested. Wanda only laughed, and it wasn’t long before Peter was laughing along with her.

***

“You take the girls in,” Bobbi instructed her husband. “I’m going to say hi to Pepper and Laura”

Hunter nodded and carried Izzy on one hip and Skye on the other. Bobbi watched them go for a second, before heading over to where Pepper and Laura were sat on a couple of seats on the porch, talking together. Laura’s eyes kept flickering away from Pepper and over the fields. Bobbi followed her gaze and saw Peter and Wanda messing around on the swings. She could just make out the childish laughter of the two of them. Bobbi settled herself down on another seat and waved slightly to Laura, who quickly returned the gesture. Pepper turned around to see Bobbi and smiled warmly and stuck her hand out for Bobbi to shake.

“Virginia, but everyone calls me Pepper,” she introduced.

“Barbara, but I go by Bobbi. What are you guys talking about?” she asked.

“Swapping horror stories of putting up with Avenger significant others,” Laura explained with a sigh. “I was just telling her about how I still can’t get anything about Budapest out of him all these years later! And you and Nat aren’t any help either”

Bobbi shrugged. “Classified”

“We can’t decide if they’re more chaotic as themselves or when their out Avenging,” Pepper added.

“If the Avenging is anything like being a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, then being themselves. As Iron Man and Hawkeye, the worst they can do is die. But in real life, they can embarrass you,” Bobbi pointed out. Pepper and Laura both nodded, considering her argument. “One time, Hunter and I were at a dinner party and somebody claimed they loved every show on the BBC, so Hunter talked about Countryfile for two hours”

“Exchanging war stories without me,” Natasha asked from where she’d just stepped out onto the porch. “How rude. Wait there, I have an idea,” she instructed with a smirk. She ran back inside. A few moments later, a very confused Thor walked out the door, Mjolnir in hand. The Bifrost opened up and he flew away. Nat reappeared at the door with her tablet. She propped it open on a small table facing the others. “Say hi Hope”

“I was still asleep,” a voice from the tablet groaned. Laura looked closer at the tablet and saw that Nat had skype called Hope Van Dyne. She was lying in bed, her phone propped up next to her. Her face was sideways as she was still lying down.

The sound of the Bifrost reopening cut through the air and Thor landed, holding a mildly startled looking Jane Foster. The two of them walked over and Nat grabbed jane by the arm, pulled her over and sat her on a spare chair.

“You can go now,” she said to Thor, making little shooing gestures.

Bobbi looked around on the group and snorted. “Is this some kind of support group for the wives, girlfriends and fiancées of the Avengers and co?”

“Nice to see somebody else on the same wavelength as me,” Nat replied with a smirk.

A small chuckle spread around the group, before they launched into stories about chaos the men had caused.

***

“What are you doing?” Clint asked when he saw Hunter, Bruce, Thor, Tony and Scott crouched behind the half wall between the living room kitchen.

“Watching them,” Tony whispered, pointing to where the women were talking outside.

“They appear to be talking about us,” Scott said. “They’ve called Hope and everything according to Thor”

“I saw her on Nat’s tablet as I brought Jane here, although Nat was quick to drag her over to their group,” Thor added. At that moment, both Pepper and Jane began to turn around in their seats, looking back into the house. Tony grabbed Clint and pulled him to the ground quickly. Clint winced slightly as his chin made contact with the floor.

“Don’t let them see you,” Bruce hissed.

“Okay, okay,” Clint argued.

“You guys are weird,” Sam commented from where he was stood by the fridge.

***

Pepper and Jane both turned back from the window.

“They’re watching,” Pepper confirmed.

Laura laughed. “That sounds about right,” she said with a slight sigh.

“True,” Hope agreed. “I need to go now, so bye”. Hope waited for the small chorus of goodbyes to end before she reached over and ended the call.

“Are we allowed out now?” Clint whispered. He’d come up to the door and was sticking his head outside.

“I was just going in,” Nat answered. “Jane, you staying long?”

“I might stay for a while, if that’s alright with you?” she checked, looking over to Laura. The other woman nodded and Jane followed Natasha back into the house. Pepper and Bobbi followed them, leaving just Clint and Laura on the porch. The two stood next to each other in silence, watching Wanda and Peter.

“It’s nice,” Laura commented, breaking the silence.

“What is?” Cint asked.

“Seeing them like that. Actually getting to act like kids for once,” she explained. “I know neither of them are little anymore, but just think about fast Wanda was forced to grow up after losing her parents and home the way she did. And from what Tony has told me about what happened to Peter’s parents and then his uncle, he didn’t have the best time growing up either. I hate to think about how much of a proper childhood they both missed out on. So, it’s nice to see them act childish, making up for lost time getting to be kids”

Clint thought for a moment about what she’d said. His gaze had drifted from Peter and Wanda to his wife, who was still staring at the two kids thoughtfully. Suddenly, her expression changed and she leant forward.

“Wanda, be care-”

Clint spun at the sound of a shriek. He looked over at the two just in time to see Wanda slide off her seat and land o  the ground eight feet below her with a load thud.

“-ful,” Laura finished. “WANDA, ARE YOU OKAY?”

Seconds later, Wanda launched herself back into the air. “I’m okay,” she yelled.

“I see what you’re saying about the whole kid thing,” Clint joked. “How long until she’s convinced him to get on one of the horses?”

***

It took her one week. Jane had stayed for a couple of days, joining Laura in telling Pepper about what happened with Darcy, who’d turned out to be Laura’s younger sister. Pepper and Peter were quick to settle in and fit in with the rest of the group. Pepper was happy to see the old Avengers team again, as she gotten on well with all of them when they lived at the Tower. She also quickly became friends with Laura and Bobbi. There was one thing Tony was right about, it didn’t take her very long at all to earn the title Auntie Pepper.

Peter and Wanda got along almost immediately and spent a lot of time together, playing with Wanda’s younger siblings. However, while Spider-Man wasn’t scared swinging around Queens, fighting crime every day, the idea of sitting on a horse was not one he considered particularly safe.

“Come one, please,” she begged for the third time that morning. It was still early, the two of them sat at the table in the kitchen, eating chocolate chip pancakes with Lila and Cooper.

“I don’t know,” he stuttered as Steve, who was wearing that looked like his uniform, slid another pancake onto Peter’s plate. “Thanks Cap”

“Witlebeefn,” Lila said, whilst still eating her breakfast. Steve raised one eyebrow at the little girl. “Sorry Uncle Steve. I said, it’ll be fun. There’s a track that goes through the woods round the edge of the field, so we can come back out onto there if you want. Pleeeeeeease”

Peter stared at the little girl and sighed in defeat. “Fine, but I don’t have any boots”

“Don’t worry,” Cooper reassured. “We’ve got spares”. He shot a sly grin across the table to Wanda. Peter groaned; maybe going riding with the Barton children wasn’t the best idea after all.

***

Peter sighed as he looked down at the boots he was wearing; they were neon orange and could be seen from a mile away. Wanda snickered as she led Peter and her siblings along  a track through the woods.

“They were the only spare pair in your size,” she reasoned.

“I know,” he sighed. “They still look ridiculous”

Wanda laughed as they pulled into the clearing that Peter had passed with Tony and Pepper on their way into the farm a week earlier. A couple of lights were on inside.

“Who’s in there?” Cooper asked.

Wanda slid off her horse, Jean, and handed the reigns to her little sister as she stepped into the clearing. Lila turned to her brother to tease that she’d been trusted to hold onto Jean for Wanda, almost sliding off her pony, Sue, in the process. Cooper didn’t respond as he was busy trying to stop his pony, Johnny from eating from a flower pot. Peter turned his attention from the siblings and back to Wanda, who’d just approached the door. She raised her hand to knock, but quickly pulled away and hurried back to the horses. She snatched the reigns back from Lila and quickly mounted.

“There’s nobody in there,” she said. “Let’s carry on. Cooper, Lila, you two go ahead where I can see you”

Cooper kicked Johnny’s side and directed him out of the clearing, Lila and Sue, following behind them.

“But you didn’t even knock,” Lila whined.

“I didn’t have to. I can use my powers and feels the minds inside, and there were none,” Wanda explained. “The ghosts must be back and they’ve turned the lights on to mess with us”

Lila gasped and urged Sue on, so she could catch up with her brother to tell him what Wanda had just told her. Peter hung back on his horse, Wade.

“What really happened?” he asked.

“I was telling the truth about being able to reach out and feel the minds,” she argued. “Only I did feel minds in there and I could tell why they were in there”. She paused for a moment. “Sometimes I wish I couldn’t”

Peter let out a choking sound as he caught on to what she was saying. “Do I want to know who?”

Wanda thought for a moment. “I won’t say, but you’ll be able to tell by whose eyes I can’t meet at dinner”. She shivered, still looking mildly horrified.

Peter let out a loud laugh at her discomfort and it wasn’t long until she was laughing along with him, the sounds of their laughter filling the woods.

***

Peter kept watching Wanda out of the corner of his eye that night. She was fine with her parents and didn’t seem to have any problem around Pepper and Tony. That left only Bruce and Nat. As they sat down, Wanda’s eyes flickered away from the group and her plate suddenly became very interesting. Nobody other than Peter seemed to notice the change in her. So that was who.

***

By the third week of being at the farm, Peter and Pepper had both settled into the rhythm of life there. Pepper did work from Stark Industries in the office at the back of the house, often working in there with Laura, who worked from home as a French translator for a magazine. Peter spent most of his time with Wanda, either playing with her younger siblings or doing school work. After Sokovia, she’d spent a lot of time on the farm, so when they’d arrived the year before, she still had a load of school books for catching up on the education she’d missed growing up on the streets.

Wanda sighed, throwing her pen down on her book and turned to stare outside at the rain. “Whoever invented the English language needs shooting,” she complained, hitting her head in her book.

“Agreed,” Peter muttered as he stared at the chemistry work he had open on his laptop. He closed the window and opened up a new one. “We’re doing a load of stuff in class about the Accords and the stuff they’ve given me to do while I’m here is about what Sokovia was like before Ultron, and I know that what happened to you there wasn’t-”

“Don’t care what your about to say. I will take any excuse to stop reading Of Mice And Men,” she said as she rushed round to where he was sat at the other side of the dining room table. She leant over his shoulder to look at his work. She was about to correct his (many) mistakes, when a video chat popped  on the screen. Wanda yelped slightly and threw herself to the floor before she could be seen.

“What’s up loser?” came a girl’s voice on the screen.

“Hey Michelle,” Peter laughed. “Nice to speak to you too. No offense, but why are you calling?”

“Just thought you’d want to know that Hydra didn’t kill us,” she said in a completely deadpan voice.

“Wait what!” Peter spluttered.

“Peter, is something wrong?” Pepper called from the office. A few moments later, she appeared in the dining room. She raised one eyebrow when she saw Wanda lying pressed against the floor, but didn’t say anything.

“It was so cool,” exclaimed another voice from the laptop.

“Ned, give me my phone back,” ordered Michelle. Wanda could hear her continue to tell him off for taking her phone on the background of the call as Ned told Peter about what had happened.

“Hydra attacked the Tri-State Ultra Mega Science Fair, but Ms Marvel, that other Spider-Man, Wiccan, Speed and this girl with glowing eyes that I’d never seen before all fought them off and it was so cool. Also, there’s a giant hole in the side of the hall wall, but they’ll just fix it”

“Would the school like the Stark Relief Foundation to cover the costs?” Pepper asked, ducking to Peter’s height so she could be seen by his friends. “I know the damage wasn’t caused by the Avengers, but you did mention that two of the Young Avengers were there, so it might be easier for us to pay for that than go through the legal hassle of trying to separate us from that team”

“Was that Pepper Potts?” shrieked a third voice from the laptop.

“Go away Flash,” Michelle complained. Wanda could hear the sounds of somebody’s hand colliding with a face, most likely Michelle trying to shove Flash away. “I’m sure the school would be very appreciative”

“Does this mean that Parker actually knows Stark?” Flash half yelled in the background.

Michelle sighed. “Okay, you know we’re all alive, so this call is now redundant. Bye”

The call disconnected and Wanda pulled herself up from the floor. She looked over at Pepper awkwardly. “Would now be a bad time to mention we know the Young Avengers?”

***

Pepper decided to bring up the topic of the Young Avengers at dinner that night. “So, Wanda mentioned that you lot are friends with the Young Avengers. Was anyone going to mention it?”

“Oh yeah,” Tony said with as much innocence as he could muster. “I forgot about that”

Pepper gave him a look while the others laughed lightly.

“Yeah, we know them pretty well,” Clint agreed.

“How well?” Pepper asked.

“Lila’s middle name is Katherine,” Laura answered. “After Kate Bishop, the Young Avengers Hawkeye. Clint trained her”

“Pretty well then”

***

“I’m guessing we’re going to keep this group going when you go back to New York,” Laura said to Pepper as the two of them waited for Jane, Nat, Bobbi and Hope via skype.

“Definitely,” Pepper agreed. “It’s nice to have people to talk to that understand what it’s like”

Laura nodded, a small smile of understanding on her lips. “I can’t believe you’re all going back in two days”

“I know, the last month has just flown by,” Pepper said. “I’ll miss it here”

“You’re always welcome back anytime,” Laura offered. “You and Tony can come here for Christmas if you want”

“Are you two making Christmas plans without us?” Nat asked as she walked outside with the tablet for Hope, accompanied by Jane.

“I mean all of you and you know it Nat,” Laura half-heartedly argued.

“Good because I need all of your help to try and one up Bruce from last year’s present,” Nat said.

Laura stared at the ring on Nat’s finger. “I’m not sure how you’re going to do that”

“I’m sure I can think of something”. She stared thoughtfully out onto the fields as a weird silence fell over the group gathered out on the porch.

They were saved from any more awkward silence by the arrival of Bobbi and Hunter. Bobbi stalked over to the others, leaving Hunter to get the twins out the car. “Sorry we’re late,” she apologised. “We were just about to leave, and then one of the neighbours said she loved all British TV, so Hunter started going on about Homes Under The Hammer”

“The transformations at the end of the show are amazing Bob,” Hunter called back from the car. “And then you hear how much they could make selling it or renting it out and you think to yourself ‘I could do that’”

Bobbi sighed and held her head in her hands as she slumped into her chair.

***

Peter was packing, ready to leave the next day. Wanda was sat with her legs crossed on the spare bed in his room, either watching him or not helping.

“Are you sure you’ve got everything?” she asked, feeling like she needed to help.

“Yes,” Peter answered as he zipped the bag up.

Wanda flicked her wrist, allowing to the case to float through the air and land carefully on the floor. Peter jumped onto his now empty bed and mirrored her position, so the two could see each other.

“Phone,” Wanda ordered. Peter passed her the phone and she quickly began typing. “Here you go,” she said as she passed it back.

“Thanks,” he said. He looked down at the phone. The screen showed a new contact. “Who’s Elizabeth Olsen?”

“Me,” Wanda replied. “Obviously I couldn’t use my real name, so please enjoy this fake one”

Peter let out a little laugh. “It was really nice to meet you without you using your powers to throw things at me- OW!” he exclaimed as a pillow surrounded by red lights hit him in the face.

“You were saying?”

***

“Well it was lovely to see you all again,” Tony declared as he Pepper and Peter were stood by the packed car, ready to leave the next day. “I hear there’s an open invitation for Christmas, so thank you”

Steve laughed and went to hug him. A sort of awkward queue began to form as everyone said their goodbyes individually.

“Hey,” Laura said when she reached Peter. “That invitation extends to you and your Aunt as well. If she’d like it out here, that is”

“Thanks Mrs Bar- I mean Laura,” Peter corrected mid-sentence. Wanda gave a double thumbs up and a sarcastic smile behind her mom’s back. Wanda narrowed his eyes at her. Laura turned to look, but Wanda had dropped the act by the time she turned around. She sighed and left to go say goodbye to Pepper.

“Well, goodbye,” Pepper said to the group as she and the other two got in the car. She was answered by a large chorus of goodbyes. They all stayed and waved until the car disappeared into the trees. As soon as they were gone, the group split off to do their own thing.

Steve headed back inside and upstairs to his room. He sat on the bed and took a deep breath. The attic was much quieter without Tony. Pepper and Peter as well, but mainly just Tony. The burner phone on Steve's bedside cabinet rang suddenly, cutting through the silence. There were only two people who had in the world who had that number, and one of them had just left.

"Hello," Steve greeted nervously as he answered the phone.

"Captain," T'Challa replied. "I call with good news. I believe my scientists have found a way to help Barnes. We’re going to be waking him up in two days"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be doing 24 Days Of Ficmas again this year. The chapters will alternate between Life On The Farm and The Next Generation in terms of setting and characters. If anyone has any ideas or prompts, let me know xx


	17. Bucky

They’d left almost as soon as Steve hung up phone, only stopping to briefly run upstairs and grab an overnight bag. Pepper offered to drive Peter home so Tony could go with Steve and the others. There was a brief argument over who stayed and who went, but eventually they agreed that Tony, Clint, Wanda and Nat would go with Steve. Wanda had gotten a huge hug from her Mom, and her younger siblings were pulled into a group hug by their Dad, before she and Clint switched. Nat and Bruce stood aside. He only let go of her hand when she stepped onto the ramp of the quinjet. Natasha sighed and threw herself down into the seat next to Wanda, the two closet to the pilot’s seat where Clint was sat. He and Tony agreed to take shifts flying the jet, so the other could get some rest. The group stared out the window as they rose up into the air and flew away, the farmhouse growing ever smaller.

That had been twelve hours earlier. The radio on the jet crackled to life as they entered Wakandan airspace, requesting permission to land. They touched down and drove the jet into the same hangar it had been parked in over a year ago when they were last in Wakanda. As the ramp lowered, they could see a welcome party similar to the one that had greeted Steve and Bucky after Siberia. The same person led them as that time as well.

“Captain Rogers,” Shuri greeted. “Welcome back to Wakanda. If you’d come this way please”

When they reached the palace, Steve slipped his bag off his shoulder and passed it to Nat.

“Can you take this to wherever we’re staying? I’m going to go with Shuri to the medical centre,” he asked. She nodded as she took the bag off Steve. The others began to turn to head to the medical centre where they were keeping Bucky.

“Wait,” Shuri interrupted. “Miss Maximoff, could you come with us please? You are able to see into minds, so the doctors would like your help treating Barnes”

Wanda shrugged her bag off her shoulder and handed it over to Clint, who quickly took it from her. “Thanks Dad,” she called back over shoulder as she jogged to catch up with Steve and Shuri.

“So, Barton. Which way to our lovely quarters in this fine place?” Tony asked with a mock posh accent.

Clint sighed at his friend, ignoring Nat’s slight laughter. “It’s this way,” he replied as he began to lead the others down a corridor towards where they’d stayed the last time they were in Wakanda, hoping that’s where they were also going this time.

***

Wanda hovered behind Steve as he stood by Bucky’s bed, the two of them waiting for him to wake up. She’d gone over the plans with the scientists when she’d gotten into the medical facility. From what she had been able to understand of the highly advanced science, they had been able to remove Hydra’s programming from Bucky’s brain. The only thing they could do now was wait for him to wake up. Then, she would be able to look inside and make sure there were no lingering traces of the programming and that he was truly free from Hydra at last.

The silence that had washed over the room was broken by a sharp knock at the door. Tony stuck his head round, a small grin on his face.

“Hey Steve,” he managed to say through a few small giggles. “You’ll never believe who’s been here in Wakanda for the last year”

Steve looked over at Wanda in mild worry.

“Don’t worry,” she reassured. “I can watch Barnes until you come back. If he wakes up, I’ll call you”

Steve smiled at her and followed Tony out of the room. They walked through a few halls until they came out into a small garden overlooking the canyon filled with jungle and waterfalls. Sat on a small bench, reading a book, was Sharon Carter.

“Have fun,” Tony whispered to Steve. He shoved him through the door. “Hey Sharon, Steve’s here!” he yelled before slamming the door.

Sharon looked up from her book and smiled when she saw Steve. She patted the bench next to her and gestured for him to come over.

“Hi,” he greeted sheepishly. “So how long have you been in Wakanda?”

“I came here about a week or so after you left. The CIA was after me for what I did, and I knew you’d come here from Siberia,” she explained. “But, when I got here, you’d already left. T’Challa and Shuri didn’t know where you’d gone, so they let me stay here”

“Sorry,” Steve apologised. “We had to keep the location of our safe house a secret. I didn’t even know where we were going until we arrived. Clint didn’t tell us”

“That’s okay,” Sharon reassured. “It’s been nice staying here”

“Listen, Sharon,” Steve stammered out. This was going to be awkward. “We need to talk, about what happened between us before the fight at Leipzig-”

“Steve, before you get any further, there’s something I need to say,” Sharon said, cutting him off. “I’m gay”. Steve stared her in shocked silence for a few moments. “Are you going to say anything? Wait, was that what you were going to say?”

“Sort of,” he was eventually able to remember how to speak. “But I’m the B, not the G”

“Oh, well I’m the L,” Sharon added.

“Yeah, I gathered”

The two of them sat in silence before Sharon turned to look Steve dead in the eye. She squinted slightly and titled her head to the side.

“Bucky,” she announced. “You’re in love with Bucky”

“Is it really that obvious?” Steve asked.

“You don’t try and hide it,” she explained. “And if you are trying to hide it, then you’re not doing very well”

“Hey, I managed to hide it from me for ages, so I thought I was doing pretty good,” Steve joked. Sharon snorted slightly. The silence fell back over the two of them. They stared out at the jungle, taking in the soothing sound of the waterfalls. They stayed like that for a few minutes, before Steve’s phone buzzed loudly.

“Who is it?” Sharon asked.

“It’s Wanda,” he answered. He picked up the phone. “Hello”

“Hey,” Wanda replied. “I think he’s waking up”

“Okay, we’re on our way”. He hung up the phone and turned to Sharon. “I, urm…”

“You don’t have to explain, you have the in-call volume up really loud,” Sharon reassured him. “You go, I’ll carry on reading”

Steve thanked her and rushed back to the medical centre. He met Wanda outside Bucky’s room.

“He’s okay, but they kicked me out of the room so he isn’t overwhelmed,” she explained before Steve could even open his mouth. “Also, please don’t think so loud, you’re giving me a headache”

“Sorry,” he apologised. He took another step towards the door, his hand resting on the handle. “Do you think I should go in yet or not?”

Wanda tilted her head to one side and stared intently at the door. Her eyes began to glow red for a second. The colourful lights disappeared from her eyes as quickly as they’d appeared. “He wants to know where you are,” she stated. “He is confused and drowsy and I think he needs you right now. You should go in”. She took a step towards Steve and playfully elbowed him in the side. “Go get him”

He rolled his eyes at her. “You’re as bad as Sharon”. He stepped into the room and quickly closed the door before Wanda could ask what me meant by that.

Bucky was propped up by several pillows and using his one arm to try and balance himself. He looked drowsy, like Wanda had said, but his eyes still darted rapidly around the room, as if he were assessing the place for threats. His eyes settled on Steve and he visibly relaxed.

“Hey Stevie,” he greeted as brightly as he could, trying to sound cheerful. “Sorry I kept you waiting for-”. He broke off, looking confused. “How long have I been asleep?”

“Just over a year. It’s August seventh”

Bucky cringed slightly at how long he’d been asleep. He turned to the doctor. “Please tell me that he hasn’t been weird with the whole cryo thing?”

“Actually, this is the first time we’ve seen Captain Rogers since last year,” the doctor explained. “He and his team left Wakanda the day after you went into cryo”. Bucky turned back to Steve, a questioning look on his face. The doctor could sense the tension in the room and he decided to make a quick exit. “I sent my assistant to get supplies from the cupboard over ten minutes ago. I’ll go see where he’s gotten to”. As he left, Steve could see Wanda hovering outside the door, attempting to peer into the room.

“You left?” Bucky asked. His tone didn’t sound accusing, but Steve could tell that he didn’t understand why he’d left him. “Where did you go?”

“A safe house,” Steve explained. Bucky looked disappointed at Steve’s answer. “I wish I could tell you more but it houses people other than just us, so I can’t say too much for their safety. Even telling you that much is more than most people ever get to know”

The doctor walked back into the room, accompanied by his very familiar assistant. “Michaels?” Steve and Bucky asked simultaneously.

“Hey you two,” he grinned at them. “Nice to see you again”

“You work here,” Steve said, somewhere between a question and a statement.

“Yeah, my boyfriend here decided that if I was going to be staying in Wakanda, then he might as well get some use out of me,” he explained. “It feels good to be helping people instead of, well, you know”

“Imprisoning teenagers in supermax prison hidden underneath the ocean,” Bucky added bluntly. Steve snorted at Bucky’s comment.

“I’ll admit not my best career choice,” Michaels admitted.

The doctor finished checking Bucky’s vitals. “Everything seems to be good Sargent Barnes. I’ll just go get Miss Maximoff and she can make sure that the programming has fully gone from your brain and then we’ll be good to go”

Before he could make it to the door, Wanda walked in, not bothering to hide the fact she’d been listening in. She walked over to Bucky and held her hands out towards his head. “May I?” she asked before getting any closer. Bucky nodded and she lightly pressed her fingers to either side of his head. Small balls of red light formed around her fingertips and delved into his skull. The same red glow from earlier flooded her eyes. She pulled back after a moment and smiled brightly. “All clear,” she announced.

“Well then, you’re free to go,” he doctor said. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have other patients to attend to”. The doctor left the room, followed by Michaels, who briefly paused to say goodbye.

“So where do we go now?” Bucky asked.

“I guess we go find the others,” Steve suggested.

“I’ll ask where they are,” Wanda offered. She pulled out her phone and sent a quick message. She got a reply almost instantly. “Dad says they’re in the same place we stayed last time we were here”

She opened the door and waited for Bucky and Steve to follow her before leading the way to their quarters. Bucky and Steve hung back a bit,

“Who’s her Dad?” Bucky asked.

“Clint,” Steve replied. “She started calling him that not long after we arrived at the safe house”. Bucky nodded in understanding. They followed Wanda down a few corridors until she pushed open the door to their quarters. The other three were all in the main living area. Natasha was flicking through the TV channels, trying to find something to watch. Clint was in the kitchen, cooking something that smelt good. Tony had commandeered the table and appeared to be working on some form of robotics.

“That better nor kill anyone,” Wanda said loudly, announcing their presence. Tony looked up from his work briefly to glare at her.

“What’s he doing here?” Bucky asked.

“Fixing your arm,” Tony replied without tearing his gaze away from his work. “I say fixing, I pretty much started from scratch. I blew off your old one so I thought I might as well make you a new one”

“You blew it off when you tried to kill me,” Bucky stated flatly.

Tony sighed and finally tore his concentration away from the new arm. “I was mad and I lashed out. I spent twenty five years thinking that it had just been a simple car crash that killed my parents, not an orchestrated hit. But, everyone in this room has blood on their hands that they wish they could take back. Hell, we’d take it all back if we could, but there are ones where we didn’t even know what was happening and how what we’d done had killed these people. Look at me, I killed Wanda’s entire family. Her parents were killed by one of my bombs, sure I didn’t know that they were being sold to forces in Sokovia, but I still made the bomb. And then Ultron killed her brother”

“And Ultron is partly my fault too,” Wanda added. “And what happened in Lagos, that’s on me as well. And everything thing that happened when I forced Bruce to turn into the Hulk. Dad and Nat were used to kill both before and after they joined S.H.I.E.L.D., and the fall of Hydra at the Triskelion killed agents”

“The point is, we’ve all done stuff that we’re not proud of, stuff that’s cost innocent people their lives. And we have to live with that. And we also have to live with the fact that everyone else is in the same boat, we’re all to blame for so much loss. And we can’t change that. Time travel doesn’t exist, there’s nothing we can do. I can’t blame you for what you did, that wasn’t you, it was Hydra,” Tony rambled. “So, we all have to forgive, not forget, they were parents and I can’t ever forget them, and move on with our lives, because that’s the only way any of us are going to be able to live with any of this”

“Wow Tony,” Steve said in a stunned voice. “That was really mature-”

“Also, I think I may have spilled glitter in the gears of this,” Tony added.

“And you ruined it,” Steve finished. “Why did you even have glitter out in the first place?”

“I’ve been working on this for a while,” Tony explained. “I must’ve had it out when L-”. He froze, catching himself just before he said Lila’s name. Even though Bucky was the only person in the room who had no knowledge of the farm, they could never be too careful. “Louisa, Pepper’s niece was staying over. She did something with glitter and it got everywhere”

From the other side if the room, Clint let released his breath. It was so quiet that Steve wouldn’t have noticed anything if he hadn’t already been watching his friend out of the corner of his eye.

“So what do we do now?” Wanda asked. She had slumped on a stall at a small counter island in the kitchen, eyeing up Clint’s cooking.

“I say we wait out here for a week,” Steve suggested, stealing a glance to Bucky every so often to try and catch his reaction. “It’ll be good to stay near the scientists for a few more days, but the others will want us back soon. And Tony’s been away from the compound for like a month already, so he needs to get back soon or people are going to get suspicious”

“Okay,” Bucky agreed. “I need to go shower, I haven’t had one in over a year, so that would be a good idea. But I guess we can plan more afterwards”. He smiled awkwardly at them and headed towards the bathroom.

Clint turned the stove off and tipped the contents of the pan into a dish. He sprinkled some cheese on top and stuck it in the oven. “If I’m not back in fifteen minutes, take it out the oven and just put a tea towel over the top to stop anything from getting to it,” he instructed. He grabbed his phone from the side and pulled Wanda down from her seat. “We have to make a call”. He led Wanda out the room, the door closing quietly behind them.

Tony, Steve and Nat shared a worried glance.

“Does anyone know what that was about?” Tony asked. Steve and Nat shrugged, as if anyone ever really understood what Clint was up to.

***

“Dad, where are we going?” Wanda asked as they headed through the palace and into the gardens.

“Hey Sharon,” Clint greeted, not answering Wanda. Sharon gave them a little wave as they passed, not looking up from her book. He carried on walking, Wanda scurrying after him. They reached the edge of the gardens overlooking the canyons, as far away from the palace as possible. Several bushes obscured the view of their spot from the windows.

“Okay seriously what are we doing?” Wanda asked again as Clint dialled a number. He held the phone to his ear for a moment, waiting for the other person to pick up.

“Hey,” he greeted when the other person picked up. “Hold a second, I’m going to put you on speaker”

“Clint, what’s going on?” Laura asked, her voice ever so slightly drowned out by the noise of the waterfall next to Clint and Wanda.

“Mom!” Wanda exclaimed.

“Hey Sweetie,” Laura replied. “Clint, really, what are you doing? Are you up to something stupid?”

“Oh ye of little faith,” Clint scoffed.

“No, oh me of realistic expectations,” Laura argued. Wanda snorted and Clint shot her a disapproving look.

“Me and Wanda are in the gardens, about as far away from the palace as humanly possible. So, nobody’s going to overhear us,” Clint explained. “So, today’s topic of discussion: Bucky Barnes”

Wanda stared blankly at her Dad. “What about him?”

“Do we bring him back to the farm with us?” he asked. “I mean, we have plenty of space and you said that all the programming is gone from his brain, but is the farm the best place for him right now?”

“By that, I presume you’re talking about the smaller agents,” Laura said.

“They could be a bit much for somebody who is recovering from years of Hydra brainwashing,” Wanda agreed. Clint rolled his eyes at the two of them.

“Give me a moment,” Laura ordered. “LILA, COOPER, CAN YOU BOTH COME HERE FOR A MOMENT?”

“Erm, hi guys,” Scott greeted awkwardly. “Laura gave the phone while she talks to the kids. How’s everything going in Wakanda?”

“It’s nice,” Clint replied with equal levels of awkwardness.

“Michaels is dating that doctor that he was hitting on last time we were here,” Wanda gossiped.

“No way,” Scott replied, suddenly a lot more interested. “Find out literally everything you can about this and report back to me- Laura, I am still talking to them- the second you get back home, okay?”

“Will do,” Wanda agreed. “Now put my mom back on the phone”

“Sorry about him,” Laura apologised when she was able to get the phone back off Scott. “So, I already have Lila and Cooper in line. They both seem excited at the idea of Bucky coming to stay here, but I told them if, and it’s still and if, he does come, that they needed to give him some space and don’t ask weird questions about Hydra, although I’m pretty sure that’s a house rule anyway”

“It’s not just the kids,” Clint added. “Other than the few days we’re going to be spending here, he’s been either on the run or kept in cryo and only woken up to be used as a weapon for nearly seventy years. I’m just wondering if suddenly getting thrown into a weird little domestic life in rural Iowa is going to be the best thing for him”

“Talk to Steve,” Laura advised. “He knows Bucky the best, but no matter what you all decide, he can come here if he needs to”

“Thanks,” Clint said. “Love you”

“I love you too,” Laura replied. “I’ll see you all in about a week then?”

“See you then, bye,” Wanda said before Clint hung up the phone.

The two of them headed back to their quarters, Sharon deciding to follow them on the way back. When they reached the main living room, Bucky had finished in the shower and was now lounging on the sofa next to Steve. Tony was still repairing the arm and Natasha still hadn’t found anything she wanted to watch. T’Challa and Shuri had joined them and were sat on one of the other sofas.

“Where did you guys go?” Bucky asked as Wanda and Clint came back into the room, Sharon slipping in behind them.

“We were talking to our friends back at the safe house,” Clint said, putting a slight emphasis on the word “friends”, hoping that Steve, Nat and Tony would catch his meaning. “We never really discussed what to do in this situation and we left in a rush, so we didn’t get a chance to plan with the others”

Wanda caught Steve slumping slightly in his seat. Bucky was also watching him. “Your friends don’t want me, don’t they?” Bucky asked.

“Actually, quite the opposite,” Wanda said. Both Bucky and Steve perked up a little. “We’d love for to come back with us. It’s a little crazy, but if you think you can handle it, then you’re welcome to join us”

“And that offer extends to you Sharon,” Clint added. “You’re on the run because you helped us, the least we can do is offer you a place to stay with us”

“Thanks,” Sharon said. “But I’m good here. Besides, without me, Shuri wouldn’t know how to play the grumpy old men high up in the CIA to her advantage”

Shuri smiled slightly. “She has been helpful with that”

“And it’s fun,” Sharon laughed. “Most of them hated me for being related to the person who founded the major spy organisation that got infiltrated by Nazis for seventy years”

Sharon held her hand up for a high five. Shuri rolled her eyes, but responded.

Steve stared at the two of them. “Getting a member to high five you, yeah, you’ve definitely settled in here”

“So how long until you plan to leave?” T’Challa asked. “Not that I’m desperate for you to leave my country, I just need to work out when we can next safely have representatives from the UN”

“We told the others we’d be back in a week,” Wanda said.

“I think I can hold them off until then,” T’Challa smiled “Besides, it would be nice to put off having a load of white people telling me how to govern my country, which they know almost nothing about”

“And you can all enjoy your time here, without the everything hanging over you like last time,” Shuri added. “I’m sure Sharon would love to show you around”

Sharon nodded. “That would be fun,” she agreed.

“So, that’s agreed,” T’Challa said, rising to his feet. “My sister and I will leave you all to it then”

“Actually, I made enough dinner for everyone, if you would like to stay,” Clint offered.

“That would be lovely,” Shuri replied. She turned to her brother. “I’m presuming you’re going to stay too?”

“Yes, I would love to stay as well,” T’Challa smiled.

“Tony, clear the table!” Clint half yelled.

“It’ll take me a while, I have a lot of delicate pieces of equipment and they all the pieces need to be kept in the right order,” Tony began to ramble.

Wanda sighed and waved her hand. A thin red mist flowed from the dining table to the coffee table across the room, moving everything between the two tables effortlessly.

“Or we could just do that,” Tony said. “So, dinner time”

Everyone sat around the table as Steve got some plates down and Cint brought over the hot dish. The group quickly descended into friendly conversation, laughter filling the room.

***

“Are you sure we can’t convince you to come with us?” Steve asked Sharon.

She rolled her eyes. “I’m sure,” she reassured him. “I’ve got work to do here. Besides, I wouldn’t want to be an awkward third wheel with you and Bucky. You go get him tiger”. She jokingly elbowed Steve in the arm.

“Suddenly, I’m glad you’re not coming with us,” Steve laughed. “Bye Sharon”

“No, bi Steve, lesbian Sharon,” she corrected, barely keeping a straight face. She attempted to stifle another round of laughter. “Hey Steve, goodbi”

“Thank you,” Steve said, already begin to laugh as well. He smiled at her one last time before heading into the quinjet.

“So where now?” Bucky asked as they took off, leaving Wakanda behind them.

“Home,” Wanda replied. She stopped there, as if she was leaving it as the dramatic end to a scene in a movie.

“Yeah, but where?” Bucky asked again, ruining the moment.

“You’ll see when we get there,” Steve said. “Safe house rules”

Bucky watched the others as they flew away from Wakanda, Clint giving them updates every so often. He would admit that he was slightly worried when Clint announced that they’d re-entered American airspace: why the hell were they hiding in the states? Everyone seemed to perk up when he told them they’d crossed state borders and were now flying over Iowa. Out of the corner of his eye, Bucky saw Nat take a silver ring, with red and green gems set into the band, from her pocket and slide it onto her left ring finger.

They landed less than half an hour later. It was mid-morning and the sun was already rising high above a picturesque white farmhouse.

“Where is this?” Bucky asked nervously. Everyone exchanged knowing smiles.

“Don’t worry,” Steve reassured, placing his hand on Bucky’s shoulder, his finger lightly touching where his new metal arm joined the flesh. “You’ll see when we get in there”

Bucky followed the others as they walked across the field, his eyes trained on the house. Tony was walking with Clint at the front of the group and they were talking about how long he was staying until he headed back the compound. Wanda and Nat were just in front of Steve and Bucky and were talking about something called Eurovision, whatever that was. Steve and Bucky brought up the back of the group, walking in silence. Bucky’s eyes were scanning the house they were moving towards, when he picked up on movement in one of the windows. Whoever it was, was small, too small to be one of the other fugitives, even Ant-Man. He froze on the spot. The others paused when Bucky stopped.

“You guys go ahead,” Steve instructed. “We’ll catch up with you in a minute”

They nodded and went ahead. As they reached the steps leading up to the porch, the door was opened by a little girl, only about seven years old. Wanda pushed past her Dad and bent down to hug the girl. Nat snatched her off Wanda as the group went inside.

“Bucky…” Steve began.

“No,” Bucky said, cutting Steve off. “Steve, this is stupid, like really stupid and dangerous. I can’t be in a place with little kids, I’m too dangerous”

“Stop it Bucky, you’re not,” Steve ordered. “The doctors in Wakanda and Wanda have all said that you’re okay now, all of the programming is gone and Hydra can’t get to you anymore. You don’t have to worry about something setting it off, you’re not going to hurt those kids”

“It’s not just that,” Bucky argued. “I’ve killed people, lots of people. I’m too dangerous”. His voice cracked slightly at the end of his sentence.

Steve stared at his friend in silence for a few moments before reaching out and hugging him tightly. Bucky’s breath hitched and it took him a few seconds before he slowly responded, loosely wrapping his arms around Steve, a gesture that he knew used to be so familiar and now felt so foreign and unusual, but comforting at the same time.

Steve pulled away and stared Bucky directly in the eye. “What you did, it wasn’t you, and don’t try to give any of that “but I still did it” rubbish, that wasn’t you. Hydra isn’t here, you’re safe. Please just come inside and just see how things go”. Bucky still didn’t seem sold on the whole idea. Steve sighed slightly. “Look, if it comes to it, and it won’t, everybody in that house would be prepared to put you down before you got anywhere near those children”

This seemed to make Bucky feel more comfortable, as he nodded slightly and allowed Steve to lead him to the farmhouse. When they got inside, a small woman with long brown hair immediately reached over and gave Steve a warm and welcoming hug. She released him after a few moments and turned to give Bucky a big smile.

“Hi, I’m Laura,” she greeted. “I’m Clint’s wife”

Bucky stared blankly at her for a few moments. “Oh,” he eventually said. “I did not know that”

“That’s the point,” Clint called. He was holding a small toddler in his arms, the words “Nathaniel Pietro Barton” proudly emblazoned across the front of his shirt. “Nobody knows about this place. That’s why we’ve been able to hide here safely for over a year”

“Do you want to come upstairs?,” Steve asked. “I can show you where you’re staying”

Bucky nodded and the two of them began to head upstairs. Wanda was just coming out of her room. She smiled brightly at the two of them as she walked past them and down the stairs. The door to Bruce and Nat’s room was slightly ajar. Natasha’s bag was open on the bed and half unpacked. She had obviously been part-way through sorting it out , but Bruce had come up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. Steve opened another door and led Bucky up another flight of stairs. They reached a small landing with seven doors. Steve opened the door with a picture of the shield. The two of them went in and Steve threw his bag down on the double bed by the door.

“You can have either of those,” Steve said to Bucky, pointing to the other two beds in the room. Bucky gently set his bag down on the bed furthest from the door, the skylight spilling warm light onto the bed. He sat down next to the bag and let the sunlight warm him. The farmhouse was quiet apart from the low chatter from two floors below. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to relax properly for the first time in years. He could really like it here.

***

It was late at night and everyone was in bed. Steve was almost asleep when he felt the bed dip slightly beside him. He reached behind him and felt the warmth of Bucky’s arm give way to the cold metal of his arm. He sucked his breath in slightly and waited for Bucky to say something. He didn’t, but his breathing slowly evened out and he fell asleep. Steve closed his eyes and forced himself to relax and eventually, he fell asleep too.

***

Steve was alone when he woke the next morning. When he went downstairs, Bucky was already sat at the table, eating pancakes and listening to Lila talk. He nodded every so often and returned Lila’s little grins, the smiles almost fully reaching his eyes. Steve smiled and grabbed a plate of pancakes from the counter and joined them at the table. He smiled at Bucky and asked Lila a question about the cartoon she was talking about. She grinned, her whole face lighting up and she continued to talk enthusiastically about the show.

***

This continued for a few days. By this time, Tony had headed home and Thor had gone back to Asgard. Steve was in his way up to his room when a dark shape pulled him into the shadows. He was tugged down the landing and into a room. He heard the door slam behind him and a light switched on. The figure pulled down the hood of their cloak, which turned out to just be a dressing gown.

“Wanda?” Steve asked. “What’s going on? Why did you drag me into your room?”

“It has been almost a week since we got back and another week since Bucky woke up and you still haven’t told him,” she explained through gritted teeth.

“Tell him what? That I’m bi and in love with him,” Steve demanded, his cheeks flushing bright red.

Wanda squinted at him slightly, taking a step towards him. “What are you not telling me?”

“Nothing,” Steve argued. Wanda glared at him a little more, lifting her hand up, red lights flickering violently in a silent threat. He sighed. “Bucky has been getting in my bed at night and then he’s gone by the time I wake up in the morning”

Wanda gasped. “And you still haven’t told him. Wow, just wow. This is insane, you’re insane. I can’t even talk to you right now”. She shoved Steve back out of the door and slammed it in his face.

“But you’re the one who wanted to talk to me,” Steve whispered to the closed door. He shook his head and went to bed. It took only a few moments before Bucky joined him. “Night Buck,” he said quietly, the first thing either of them had said since this had started.

Bucky didn’t say anything for a few long moments. The bed creaked and Steve was worried that he was going to leave. “Night Stevie,” Bucky eventually replied. Steve smiled slightly to himself, maybe this, whatever this was, was going to work after all.

***

Wanda corned him the next day in the kitchen, her arms folded across her chest. “Night Buck, was that really the best you could come up with?” she demanded.

Steve ushered her away from the others. “You were listening in on our conversation?”

“Well, first of all, I don’t really think that really qualified as a conversation, a grand total of four words were spoken,” she argued. “Secondly, what do I keep telling you? You think really loudly. I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation. Do you think I like hearing all of your conversations?” she whisper-yelled. “Yours isn’t even the worst bedroom related stuff I’ve overheard”

“Thanks for letting me know that,” he hissed. “So what do you expect me to do?”

“Tell Bucky!”

“Tell me what?” Bucky asked. Wanda and Steve spun to the side. Bucky was staring at the two of them, looking confused. Wanda opened the patio door.

“Both of you, outside, now,” she ordered. “Go sort out your emotional man pain and find some way to stop thinking so loud, you’re giving a girl a headache”. She slammed the door on them the second they were both out.

“What was that about?” Bucky asked Steve.

Steve considered lying for a moment, but he knew that telling the truth was the only way to deal with any of this, no matter how painful it could be for him. “I told her about- well, well she cornered me and got it out of me -about you coming into my bed the last few nights”

Bucky shifted uncomfortably. “If that’s what the problem is, you just had to tell me. I can stop if that’s what you want”. He began to head back inside when Steve grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him back.

“Buck, that’s not what I want,” he pleaded. “That couldn’t be further from what I want. There’s something that I need to tell you, and it’s okay if you don’t feel the same, but I need to say it. I should’ve told you days ago, but I couldn’t, and now, with every second that I don’t, I feel like I’m lying to you, and I hate that”. He took a deep breath in and made eye contact with a very worried looking Bucky. “I’m bisexual. I like girls and I like guys, and I like you. I really like you. And I’m sorry for just dumping all of this on you, but like I said I couldn’t keep lying. I love you”

Bucky seemed to be frozen. Steve looked down at his feet and closed his eyes, desperately trying to blink back the tears.

“Steve, look at me,” Bucky said, his voice barely above a whisper. Steve looked up. Bucky had taken a step towards him, but seemed unsure of what to do.

“I’m so sorry for-”

Steve was cut off by Bucky reaching out and cupping his face with both hands, their lips crashing together. Steve’s breath hitched for a moment before he returned the kiss. His hands crept up behind Bucky’s back and knotted themselves in Bucky’s hair. He could taste the salt of the tears that were now running freely down his cheeks. They spilled into his mouth as their lips met. Eventually they both pulled apart slightly, staying close enough for their foreheads to touch. Steve smiled lovingly at Bucky.

“I love you too,” Bucky whispered.

Steve choked back a tearful giggle. He leant forward for another quick kiss.

“I’m really glad that we finally did that,” Steve admitted.

“Me too,” Bucky laughed. “So, I’m guessing that the current bed arrangements are going to stay the same then?”

“If you want,” Steve replied, gently stroking the side of Bucky’s face.

“Hey, lovebirds,” Nat called, opening the door. “Breakfast is ready if you can pull yourselves away from each other for more than two seconds”

She closed the door and left the two alone again. Bucky pulled back from Steve. “Are you ready to go in?” he asked.

Steve reached out and took Bucky’s hand in his own. He led him back inside and to their friends.

***

It was just over a month later and Bucky had settled in at the farmhouse. He had met the Hunter-Morse family; Izzy and Skye had taken to him immediately. They and Nathaniel seemed to find the metal arm highly amusing. Tony and Pepper had been back to visit and Bucky had gotten along with her straight away. He’d also appeared to be the only man allowed in the support group for significant others of superheroes.

It was late September and the leaves were beginning to fall off the trees and the feel of autumn was in the air. Bucky was watching TV downstairs with a few others. He was curled up against Steve’s side, who’d draped his arm around Bucky, and he kept sticking his feet in Sam’s lap to annoy him.

“HAPPY BI VISIBILTY DAY!” Nat announced as she sprung from the doorway, showering the two men in pink, purple and blue confetti. She was wearing a t-shirt that a picture of Steve’s shield in the colours of the bi pride flag.

Bruce was stood awkwardly behind his fiancée, holding a dustpan and brush. “I’m so sorry about her,” he apologised. “I tried to talk her out of it, but this is at least a step down from the glitter”

Bucky looked up at his boyfriend as he desperately tried to brush all of the confetti from his hair. Steve caught him staring. “Is something wrong?” he asked quietly so the others couldn’t hear.

“When I first got here, I thought that I’d finally found a place that I could really like being in. Somewhere where I wasn’t a threat and I wasn’t going to kill anyone,” he explained.

“And?” Steve asked. “Do you like it here?”

“I love it, it’s somewhere that I can be happy,” Bucky said with a wide smile that reached to his eyes, which shone with happiness. “I forgot what it felt like, to be truly happy. But now, I’ve remembered”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "HAPPY BI VISIBILITY DAY!" -Natasha Romanoff, this chapter
> 
> Argh, this took ages to write. There probably won't be another chapter in this fic until Christmas day (and I have some big plans for then) but hopefully there should be at least one more for The Next Generation (look out for that one Ms. Marvel fans!!). 
> 
> There will still be 24 Days of Ficmas and I'm still open to any prompts for that, so if you have any ideas, please let me know xx


	18. Christmas 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is set after 24 Days of Ficmas 2017 so I recommend reading that first

This year, not only did Lila have another floor to do her Christmas morning wake up call on, but she wasn’t alone. She and Cassie started by banging on all the doors on their floor before racing upstairs. Lila woke everyone else, while Cassie ran into her dad’s room.

“Dad!” she yelled as she threw herself onto his bed, landing on Hope with a soft thud.

Hope groaned slightly when the little girl crashed into her side. “Morning Cass”. She rolled over to smile at Scott as he hugged his daughter. “I’m guessing it’s time to get up”

The little girl nodded, before Lila called her back to the others. Scott and Hope propped themselves up on their elbows.

“Merry Christmas Hope,” Scott whispered.

“Merry Christmas,” she muttered back before leaning over to Scott for a kiss.

“Merry Christmas to you two too,” Selvig said from the other side of the room. Scott and Hope broke away sheepishly, both having forgotten about their roommate.

Cassie giggled from where she was still watching at the door, before running after Lila back down the stairs. As they came back onto the landing, they nearly crashed into Laura and Clint.

“Watch where you’re going girls,” Laura lightly scolded. The girls had the decency to look sheepish before racing off downstairs, Cassie calling to her mother as she went. Laura looked up as Natasha and Bruce’s door opened. Bruce smiled her as he went past and headed downstairs. Natasha hung back a moment.

“So, today’s the day,” Natasha whispered to her friend, wary of Clint, who was stood laughing by the open door to Sharon and Wanda’s room. “I’m nervous”

“Don’t be,” Laura reassured. She hugged her friend tightly. “Everything’s going to be great”

The two headed downstairs and were soon joined by everyone else, including a very annoyed looking Sharon.

“She wouldn’t get out of bed, so I used my powers to tip her out,” Wanda explained.

“And that’s why Clint was laughing,” Laura added. Wanda grinned at her as she sat down.

Once everyone had crowded into the room, Lila grinned. “So, can we start opening presents now?”

“Yes, go on,” Laura encouraged. The two girls reached over and began grabbing presents from the pile, handing them out to the correct person, desperate to find their own.

Chatter began to fill the room as presents were unopened and they thanked whoever they were from. Wanda heard a small laugh from behind her.

“Look what Mr Stark got me,” Peter grinned. “I didn’t even know that they made Spider-Man themed binders”

“Kid, read the note,” Tony instructed from where he and Pepper were sat a couple of feet away.

Peter pulled a small notecard out from the box the binder had been in. “You’ll pay for my transition?” he asked nervously, as if he was unsure about what he’d read. When Tony nodded, the boy threw himself at him, enveloping him in a hug. “Thank you”

The heart-warming scene was broken by a large yelp from the other side of the room. Everyone looked over to see T’Challa attempting to detach Mittens from the present in his hand.

“I’m so sorry,” Sam apologised. “I didn’t know about the kittens and put a bag of catnip in your present”

Everyone burst out laughing as Natasha reached over and grabbed Mittens, placing her in her lap.

“Is that the last of the presents?” Steve asked, looking at the amount of wrapping paper scattered all over the room. Somehow, he and Bucky seemed to have ended up with the majority of it and were half buried in a mountain of reindeer, snowmen and elves.

Laura and Natasha exchanged a brief look across the room, the latter shooting a reassuring smile to the former. Before Clint could question what his wife and best friend were up to, Sharon called out from where she’d crawled under the tree in search of any remaining presents.

“There’s one more,” she piped up. She shimmied her way out from under the tree and flipped her hair back off her face so that she could read the label. “It’s for Bruce, from Natasha”

Bruce took the small box from her, carefully undid the bow and removed the lid, conscious of the whole room looking at him. His hand flew up to his mouth in shock as he turned to face his fiancée, who was sat nervously next to him. “Natasha, is this for real?”

“Yes,” she replied, her voice barely above a whisper. Bruce swept her into a huge hug from the side, small tears already coming from his eyes.

“I love you, I love you, I love you,” he said over and over again, pressing a kiss to the side of her face between each one.

Natasha had broken out into a huge grin and was laughing loudly. “I take it you’re happy about this”

He pulled back from her so that he could look her in the eye. “How could I not be?”. He leant over and kissed her softly on the lips.

“Planning on telling anyone what’s going on?” Tony asked, ruining the moment.

Bruce looked at Natasha. “You want to tell them?”

She nodded eagerly before turning back to the rest of the group. “I’m pregnant”. A shocked silence fell over the room before people all rushed to give their congratulations to the couple at once.

Steve managed to make his way over so that he was behind Nat, who he quickly swept up into a brotherly bear hug. “I’m so happy for you,” he whispered into her ear. He reached over and clapped Bruce on the back, before heading back to Bucky, who’d chosen to stay out of the chaos.

“Does this mean Natasha is now the current reigning champion of Christmas presents?” Tony asked, yelling over the noise. A small whack followed seconds later, as a hand connected with the back of his head. “Pepper! There was no need for that!”

***

By the time it was time for lunch, they’d been joined at the farm by Bobbi and Hunter. By some miracle, they’d all managed to fit around the dining table, even if it meant dragging in chairs from the kitchen and the office.

“I don’t know how you were able to fit all the food into the oven,” Clint commented when he saw everything laid out.

Laura stared back at their oven. “Honestly, neither do I”

As everyone settled down, Tony picked up one of the Christmas crackers. “Are these the really expensive ones that I had sent here?” he checked.

“Yes, they are,” Wanda said. She turned to glare at Scott. “Just be careful with the toys, they have a tendency to overheat and set the hats on fire”

“There’s a story behind this, isn’t there?” Peter joked.

“Is this why you had throw a fruit salad over Scott’s head?” Clint asked.

“Wait, what?” Maggie half-shrieked, exchanging an alarmed look with Hope, who was now half-choking on her drink. Wanda laughed and started to tell the story as dinner was served.

***

“You really are an idiot,” Hope commented later that evening. It had turned dark a few hours earlier and the kids had gone to bed. Everyone else was scattered around the house, talking quietly. She and Scott had headed upstairs and had ended up sat on the bean bags by the bookshelves, reading to themselves.

“Is this about the Christmas hat story, because I really didn’t mean to set my head on fire,” he defended.

She laughed and put her book down. “I missed this,” she whispered.

“Me too,” he whispered back, also settling his book down. “Do you think that maybe next year, you might be able to visit more? I hate that I have to go so long without being able to see you. Cassie too”

“Okay,” Hope promised. The two of them picked their books back up and carried on reading, hands connected in the middle.

***

“When you invited me in here to play cards, this is not what I had in mind,” T’Challa said as he stared at the deck of cards in his hands.

“Well, I did ask you if you wanted to play cards against humanity,” Peter argued.

T’Challa sighed. “It’s just that I’ve heard that some of these jokes go a little too far”

“We do have another card game,” Wanda pointed out. “But we thought that one would be even more against your tastes”

“And that was?” T’Challa asked.

“Exploding Kittens,” Peter answered.

“Cards against humanity it is then,” T’Challa decided.

“Don’t worry you’ll be fine,” Sharon reassured. “Now, let’s see what the black card is for this round is”

She read aloud the card and watched as the others each placed a white card in the middle. She turned the first two cards over, laughing lightly at them. However, when she reached the third one, she gasped in shock.

“Okay!” she exclaimed. “That one wins. And whoever did that is seriously messed up”

The others looked over. Wanda’s hands flew up to her mouth. “That is just low”

Peter stared at the card. “Well that’s going to be hard to beat”

T’Challa smiled. “Maybe this game will be fun after all,” he said, happy that he’d won the first round.

***

“I’m really happy for you guys,” Clint said for the umpteenth time that day. He, Laura, Bruce and Natasha were clearing up after dinner in the kitchen.

“Thanks,” Bruce said.

“Just like the other thousand times,” Natasha muttered under her breath. She shot a cheeky grin at Bruce as she put the last of the clean plates away. “And I think we’re done”

“At long last,” Laura laughed as she looked round the empty downstairs, save for Maggie and Paxton on the sofa bed. “It seems like everyone else has given up for the night. Are we going too?”

Everyone else agreed and headed upstairs as quietly as possible.

“Goodnight,” Natasha whispered as she and Bruce went into their room.

Laura shot her small wave before following Clint to their room. As soon as she was in, she threw herself down onto the bed. “I’m absolutely exhausted,” she sighed. “I’m so glad I wore pyjamas all day”

Clint laughed and dropped down next to her, the soft thud filling the dark room. “It’s been a good Christmas”

Laura hummed in agreement as she curled up against his side. “Merry Christmas. I love you”

“I love you too”

***

**Containment Centre, Nevada Desert. 22:19 25/12/17**

Sirens blared, mixing with the sound of her laboured breaths and running footsteps in the hall that was lit only by the pulsing red lights. She reached the end of the hall and grabbed a set of keys from the wall. After a few attempts, she was able to find the one that unlocked the power-dampening cuffs on her wrists. And just in time, it seemed.

“Drop the keys and go back to your cell!” a guard yelled. He seemed to be the leader of the small group behind her.

“Or what?” she demanded. “You’ll shoot? Is that really your best idea right now?”

She held her hands out by her sides as the guards pulled the triggers of their guns. The bullets flew towards her, but were stopped just a few short inches away from impact. They hovered in the air, suspended in the distorted magnetic field that converged on the glowing green lights that danced on her fingertips. She turned back to face the guards, smirking evilly and a devilish glint in her dark green eyes.

“Really, which idiot’s idea was it to use metal bullets?” she asked in an eerily calm voice.

“Target has removed the cuffs,” one of the guards said into a radio unit. “Repeat: targ- ARGH!”

He was cut off as the bullets came flying back to him and the other guards. The girl laughed slightly as she watched them crumple to the ground, blood oozing from either their necks or foreheads. She walked over to the guards and stole a security badge off one of the still and lifeless bodies. She glared at him in disgust before moving on, not even bothering to close his unseeing eyes. She used the security badge to open the door to a storage room. The first thing she went for was her bag. It had been emptied and all the other belongings were in evidence bags on the shelf. Or so they thought.

She cracked open the secret compartment she’d hidden in the lining. The file contained all the information she and her father had gathered on her sister. She quickly reloaded her bag before changing. She shrugged off her dirty old prison uniform, still stained with the blood of the last victim of the last person to wear it. She quickly put on her own clothes; a green and black checked shirt; black jeans; deep green converse with steel rods discretely worked into the soles; her black leather jacket and finally, her thick metal bracelets.

She shrugged the bag onto her shoulders and began to head out the doors and towards her freedom. She was almost there, when she heard the click of a gun.

“Turn around and put your hands in the air,” the guard ordered, clearly trying to tough, but the quiver in his voice giving his fear away.

Without even looking, she flicked her wrist and the gun flew out of his hand and clattered on the floor. She spun around and pinned him against the wall, despite him being nearly three times her size. She pulled a knife from her jeans and pressed it against his neck hard enough, but not enough to draw blood. “I’m leaving this hell hole and finding my sister and there is nothing you can do to stop me”. She smirked when she saw the date on the calendar as she drove the knife into his neck, splattering blood all over her face and green hair.

“Merry Christmas, bitch”


	19. Sisters

“What about Jennifer?” Natasha suggested. “If it’s a girl”

“Like my cousin?” Bruce asked. Natasha nodded. “I like it, but I was thinking that maybe we could go with a Russian name. Unless something drastic happens, he or she is going to be growing up in America, surrounded by a largely American family. I thought that it would be nice to still have some connection to their Russian heritage”

“I would like that,” Natasha said. She looked out the window of their room. It was dark outside and she and Bruce had been talking about baby names for a couple of hours now. “But we don’t have to decide now. We do still have several months”

Bruce sighed and leant back against the headboard. A silence washed over the room, as it had done with the rest of the house, the only noise the quiet murmur of the whatever Clint, Laura and Wanda were watching on the TV downstairs.

Natasha was still looking out of the window. She tensed suddenly and stood up to get a better look. “Bruce, get the others, someone’s coming”

***

Twigs on the ground snapped underfoot as she trekked through the woods. She’d been hitchhiking her way across country for the last week since she’d broken out of the containment centre in the Nevada Desert on Christmas day. Finally, in the early hours of New Year’s Day, she’d reached the town of Waverly in Iowa, where her intel said her sister had last been seen. By hanging around in a diner for long enough she’d been able to establish that Hawkeye’s wife and children lived on a farm outside of town. If the Avengers were going to be anywhere in this town, it was there.

She’d walked on foot for a few miles out of the town, her feet churning up the mud in grassy verges on the side of the road when the footpaths ran out. She squeezed through a gap in the fence and headed through the woods. The woods opened out to an open field, a farmhouse and barn at one end. She could see silhouettes moving around against the brightly light windows, before all the lights flicked off and the door opened. 

“I come in peace!” she yelled across the field. She tried to take a step towards the house, but stumbled slightly, her vision blurring. She looked to her side and saw a red spot blooming against the white dollar store t-shirt. “Aw, crap”

Somebody must have seen her stumble as a small group began to run across the field towards her, although she couldn’t help but notice the fact that they came armed.

“Who are you?” Captain America demanded when he reached her, the others just steps behind him. She attempted to take a step towards him, but stumbled over her own feet as her vision began to blur. He caught her before she could crash to the ground. “Easy there kid. Are you alright?”

 She shoved Steve off of her and pushed her way through the small group until she reached Wanda at the back. “Wanda,” she breathed heavily, by now struggling to stay conscious. “I’ve been looking for you”

Wanda barely had time to grab the girl’s arms before her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed in Wanda’s grasp.

***

“For the last time, I have no idea who she is,” Wanda hissed at the others as she warily watched the girl who was currently passed out on the sofa. After she’d collapsed out in the field, they’d been quick to get her inside. By now, they had managed to stop the bleeding and attach her to a bag of O- blood. Bruce was currently redoing the stitches on her side, which looked like they’d been done in a hurry by someone on the run.

“Wanda, we believe you, we really do,” Laura reassured. She sighed before continuing. “But a girl just spent God knows how long tracking you down and immediately passed out in your arms from blood loss. Sweetie, if there’s anything at all that you can think of about how you may know her, you have to tell us”

“She’s telling the truth, she doesn’t know me,” came a groggy voice from the other side of the room. Everyone turned to look at the girl on the sofa. Her eyes were still closed, but she was clearly awake.

Bruce froze in what he was doing. “I need to finish stitching this up,” he explained. “I was doing it while you were asleep so that you wouldn’t feel it, but now you’re awake, I have to warn you that this will hurt a lot”

“Can’t hurt worse than the knife that did it, so go ahead”

Bruce raised his eyebrows slightly as he continued to re-stitch the wound. Wanda saw the girl flinch slightly as the needle went through the skin. She went over and knelt by her head, holding her hands out over the girl’s head with small red lights glistening on her fingertips. The girl seemed to relax instantly.

“I can block the pain,” Wanda explained. “Thought it might help”

“That’s cool,” she laughed. “I can control metal, which stopped the knife from going any further. Shame I couldn’t catch it in time”

“You can control metal?” Bruce asked. The girl nodded slightly. “Are you enhanced?”

“Nah, I’m a mutant, which is probably why that guy went for me”

Clint and Natasha exchanged a worried look. 

“Is something wrong?” Laura asked.

“At S.H.I.E.L.D. there were a load of old files about what they did to mutants back in the 60s,” Clint explained. “They were rounded up and sent to containment centres in the middle of nowhere, like the desert in Nevada or California, and there were loads in the Alaskan tundra. Miles from anyone else, where they wouldn’t be found”

“But then something big happened in the government in 1972, and all the mutants just vanished,” Natasha added. “The centres were closed down and the last decade of violence was just swept under the rug. They don’t teach it in any history classes, it’s like the whole thing never happened”

“We didn’t leave,” the girl explained. “A mutant in government was able to make it look like we did so that we could survive. But, about ten months ago, somebody discovered that it was all a lie and told the president. With everything going on with the Inhumans, Trump didn’t want to look like an idiot, so he reopened the centres in secret. I spent six months in one in the Nevada desert. I was able to escape a week ago and came straight here”

“I really hate that man,” Sam muttered. “How did he even win?”

“I’m really sorry about everything that’s happened to you,” Clint said. “But, who are you?”

The girl sat herself up on the sofa, tugging off the cap on her head, allowing her long bright green hair to fall down over her shoulders. The line attaching her to the bag of blood tugged on her arm as she shifted. She stared at it, as if she was only just aware of it at that moment. “Do you guys keep bags blood here, just in case one of you suddenly needs a transfusion? Never mind, you’re the Avengers, you probably would need those”

“Quit stalling kid,” Steve ordered, his arms folded across his chest. 

“My name is Lorna Dane,” she began. “When I was little, my mom and her husband got into argument because he figured out that she’d gotten pregnant when she’d had an affair. He was flying us in his plane at the time. I tried to get them to stop fighting, but it triggered early activation of my powers. I created an electric pulse that caused the plane to crash and killed them both. My real father felt the pulse and came to find me. I’ve lived with him and my half-sister since then”

“There’s more to it than that, isn’t there?” Clint asked. Lorna looked down at her hands and bit her lip. Wanda shifted from the floor and rubbed the younger girl’s arm reassuringly.

“Yeah, my powers made my hair green,” she laughed. Everyone glared at her attempt at a joke. She sighed before continuing. “Dad’s from Germany originally, but he moved to Sokovia when he was older. Anya was eight when the fighting began, and she and Dad fled the country when his wife died. I was born four years later.  A few months ago, Dad was away for a few days and I was visiting a few friends at the mutant underground while Anya was at work when we were attacked. Me and two others were doing a supply run when they caught us. I held them off as long as I could, but I don’t know if Clarice and Sonya got away or not. God, I hope they did”

“Your sister’s Sokovian, is that why you were trying to find Wanda?” Clint asked. He turned to look at Wanda. “Wanda, are you okay?”

Wanda had frozen in position, staring blankly into space. After a few moments, she drew her hand away from Lorna, bringing it to rest on her lap. She turned to face Lorna. “Anya, her surname, is it Eisenhardt?”

Lorna nodded. “And Dad’s name is Erik Lehnsherr, but before, when he and Anya still lived in Sokovia, he was called Max Eisenhardt”

Wanda paled slightly, and her eyes dropped to stare at her hands. “When we were little, Mom used to tell me and Pietro about our older sister, from her first marriage. She said her name was Anya Eisenhardt and she was killed when the fighting started, along with her father. But, you’re saying she’s alive and so is her father”

“So,” Scott started. “You guys have the same half-sister? That’s weird. What relation does that make you?”

“No, no, no,” Wanda muttered. “After we found out that Mom had been married before, Pietro used to joke that it didn’t match up; our birthday and our parent’s wedding. He kept going on about how Anya’s dad might have been ours as well. I used to tell him to stop, he shouldn’t say things like that. He finally did, after they died, but it always bothered him. I didn’t want to think about things like that, that the fighting had already taken another parent from us before we were even born. But he was right, wasn’t he? You’re my sister. Half-sister. And your dad is my real dad”

“That’s why I’ve been looking for you,” Lorna explained. She seemed excited that Wanda was beginning to understand what was going on. “Me and Dad have been looking for you since the fall of Sokovia. Someone in the mutant underground got intel that you were here. I picked up the file the day they took me. I hid it in a secret compartment in my bag and they never found it at the containment centre. As soon as I got out, I came to find you”

Wanda stood up. “I need some air,” she muttered before running out of the front door.

“I’ll go talk to her,” Clint offered, before following her out of the room.

Lorna watched them go, before turning back to the others. “I don’t mean to be needy, but can I borrow a phone? I want to call my sister and let her know that I’m alive”

***

“Wanda!” Clint called. “Where are you?”

“Over hear,” came her voice weakly.

He looked over to where he’d heard the sound and could see the girl leant against a tree, arms hugged tightly around her chest. He ran over to her and pulled her into a hug. “I know this is a lot to take in, but just remember that your Mom and I are here for you, no matter what. No one is going to make Lorna leave, if that’s not what you two want. And we’re not going to stop you from seeing Anya or your real dad either”

Wanda didn’t miss the painful way he said “real dad”. She pulled back and moved her hands up to her mouth in shock when she realised what she’d said. “That’s not what I meant, I swear. I’ve spent the last decade thinking that I lost my birth parents and then three years ago, I lost my brother. And now, I’ve found out that my real birth father is still alive, I just don’t know what to do. But, that doesn’t change anything with us. You and Mom are still my parents, not him. Just because we’re biologically related, doesn’t automatically make him my dad in the way you are. Nobody made you two take me in, but you did anyway. He didn’t even bother to look for his own wife, he just left with the sister that I never got to meet and I had to watch my mother mourn for years. He’s never been there for me, and you always have. You are my real Dad, not him”

Clint stared at her for a moment in stunned silence before he pulled his daughter, his daughter, into another hug. “That was without a doubt one of the sweetest and most heartfelt things I have ever heard in my life. Now, why don’t wait out here for a few more minutes so that we can make it look like we haven’t been crying. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a reputation to uphold”

Wanda giggled against his t-shirt before pulling away again to wiper her eyes. “Did you mean what you said, about Lorna, that she can stay?”

“If that’s what you guys want, then yes, she can stay as long as she wants. She’s your sister, she’s family”. Wanda nodded and smiled slightly. “You ready to go back in?”

“Yeah,” she whispered. The two of them began to walk slowly back to the house. When they got in, Lorna was just passing the phone back to Laura. “Who were you talking to?”

“My- I mean our -sister’s voicemail,” Lorna explained. “She’s probably either working, asleep, or somehow both, I really don’t know how she manages it. But, word of warning, if you get a really rushed call demanding to know where the hell I am from a very stressed sounding woman who is probably running on pure caffeine, then put me on the line, it’ll be Anya”. The young girl tried to supress a yawn, but failed.

“You need somewhere to sleep?” Laura asked, but her tone made it clear that it wasn’t really a question. “We have plenty of space upstairs, especially now everyone else has gone home after the holidays. We have two whole rooms spare in the attic, you can take your pick for now”

“I’ll show you,” Wanda offered. She stood up and grabbed her sister’s bag before offering her hand up. The two girls left the room and headed upstairs. Wanda opened a door and led her up another flight of stairs and into the converted attic. She pushed open a door with a child’s drawing of a spider pinned to the front. “Don’t mind the sign on the door, this is the room Spider-Man stays in whenever he visits. He’s back in New York now, so you can stay here as long as you need. My room is just downstairs if you need anything. And, word of warning for the morning, Lila, my little sister, is very nosy and does not know when to stop”

“I was like that when I was younger, and don’t worry, I’ll give her the child friendly version of the story,” Lorna promised.

“Do you need anything?” Wanda asked. 

“I’m okay, thanks,” Lorna replied.

“Okay. Well, goodnight,” Wanda said. She turned to leave, but before she could, she felt a pair of arms wrap around her from behind.

“I’m really happy I found you,” Lorna whispered in her ear, before releasing her sister and allowing her to go.

***

It was three in the morning when Laura was woken by the shrill ringing of her phone on her nightstand. Beside her, Clint bolted upright and went to grab the bow he kept stashed under the bed in case of emergency.

“Hello,” Laura answered the phone. “Yeah, hi, you must be Anya. Yeah, Lorna’s here. She’s asleep upstairs right now”

Clint relaxed when he realised who his wife was talking to. He stashed the bow back under the bed as she gave Anya their address before hanging up and setting the phone back on the nightstand.

“So that was Anya,” Laura said as she flopped back down in bed with a groan. 

“Figured,” Clint muttered.  “I reckon she’ll be here this weekend, wondering what the hell her sister- sisters -are up to”. Laura mumbled her agreements before falling back asleep again.

***

“This weekend” came before the weekend. Around eight that morning, a car pulled up clumsily outside, knocking over the wall of snow that had been cleared back to make space for the cars.

“Clint, go see what that was,” Laura ordered sleepily, rolling over and burying her face in her pillow.

Clint stood up and yawned as he walked to the door. He got to the top of the stairs when a flash of green hair sped past him, cursing as she went.

“ANYA!” Lorna yelled as she ran outside.

Clint sighed and walked back to Wanda’s room. “Sweetie, your sister’s here,” Clint called. “I mean your other one. Anya”

Wanda opened the door, her bedhead obvious. “Oh my god, how did this become my life”. She patted down her hair, trying to tame the mess. “Well, I’d best go meet my big sister”

***

“LORNA SALLY DANE!” Anya yelled as she climbed out of the car. She ran over to her sister as she came down the farmhouse steps and enveloped her in a hug. After a few seconds, she pulled away and held her at arm’s length, her hands clutching Lorna’s arms in a vice-like grip. “Where the hell have you been and what have you been up to? I have had Sentinel Services at my door nearly every day since June”

“They had me in one of their new containment centres in Nevada, I was only able to break out a week ago,” Lorna explained.

Anya blinked her eyes rapidly for a few seconds in shock. “Okay, okay. Are you okay? Did they hurt you? I have my first aid kit in the car, unless the people here helped you already did”. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a figure appear in the doorway. “Hey, thanks for looking after my sister. Was she hurt when...”

She trailed off when she saw Wanda Maximoff stood in the doorway.

***

Wanda pushed past her Dad and ran down the stairs, coming to a halt when she reached the door. Outside, a woman who she presumed to be Anya Eisenhardt was stood gripping Lorna by the arms, ranting at the younger girl.

There was really no doubt that this girl was her older sister; she looked like an older version of Wanda herself. Her hair, the same unruly brown locks as Wanda’s, was pulled back into a messy ponytail. She was wearing a pair of white trainers, and a baggy beige jumper with Bambi on the front was pulled over blue hospital scrubs. Her eyes flickered up and locked on Wanda, her words trailing off. She released her grip on Lorna and took a few tentative steps towards Wanda.

“Wanda Maximoff? Is that really you? Oh my god, Lorna found you, she actually did it,” Anya said, not quiet believing it.

Wanda walked over, closing the distance between her and Anya. She awkwardly stuck her hand out to shake, but Anya pulled her in for a hug. Despite having only just met, she hugged Wanda with the same strength as she had done with Lorna, as if Wanda would disappear if she didn’t hold on tight enough. After a moment, she pulled back and cupped Wanda’s face with her hands.

“You look just like Mom,” she whispered. Wanda choked on a sob. Growing up, she’d heard both the man she’s thought was her father and brother tell her that often, but hearing it now, from someone who remembered her mother when she was alive, brought all the memories back up.

“Do you want to come inside?” Wanda offered. “I think everyone else is spying on us already, so you might as well come in and meet them”

Lorna snorted and pushed her way past the other two and walked back in. “You’re right by the way,” she called as she walked through the door. “They’re watching everything right now”

Anya and Wanda followed their sister inside and to the living room where all the Avengers and the Barton family, minus the children, had gathered, all acting as if they weren’t just watching out of the window.

Laura took a step towards Anya and held her hand out to shake. “Hi, I’m Laura. I spoke to you on the phone earlier”

“I just got home from my shift when I saw Lorna’s message. I got here as soon as I could, thanks for looking after her,” Anya said, shaking Laura’s hand.

“You must live nearby, getting here this soon,” Sam commented, watching the family interact.

“I live in Chicago, I drove here straight away. Five hours after a twelve hour shift at the ER,” Anya explained. “I haven’t heard from Dad and Anya in months, I couldn’t wait any longer”

Everyone exchanged worried looks. Lorna was the one to eventually speak up. “Anya, Dad’s not here, I thought he was back home with you”

Anya stared at her sister in confusion for a moment, before sinking to the sofa. “He never came back home, and then with Sentinel Services constantly bothering me, I just thought they’d gotten you both and were trying to get any more information out of me and maybe take me down as well. God, I feel so stupid, they were trying to see if I knew where he was. Lorna, I am so sorry”

Lorna sat down and wrapped her arms around her sister’s shoulder. “It’s not your fault Anya. Despite literally everything that has ever happened in our house that proves otherwise, you are not the adult in charge. It isn’t your responsibility to make sure we don’t die. Unless we’re in the ER, then it’s on you”

Anya snorted and leant against her sister. “You’re an idiot”. She looked back up at the others. “Thanks for looking after my sisters, I don’t know how I can ever thank you”

“Not telling anyone that we’re here would be nice,” Clint joked. Laura pinched his side, glaring slightly. “But seriously, you don’t have to do anything. Wanda’s family to us, so you guys are by extension. You can stay here as long as you need”

“That might be a while,” Lorna said awkwardly. “I just broke out of a high security facility by murdering a load of people and Anya vanished from her house at three in the morning a week later. It is not going to be safe to go home anytime soon”

“I had a feeling that this would happen,” Anya sighed. “I have a load of your stuff in the car, but-”. She broke off and reached for a bag on the floor. She opened it and pulled out a stuffed elephant that stuck to the same green theme that Lorna seemed to have going on. “-I did bring Miss Snuffleton”

Lorna reached out and grabbed the toy, hugging it tightly to her chest. “Thank you”

“Is it a thing that runs in your family; the ability to be a badass, yet have offsetting cutesy little quirks to go with it?” Scott asked. “Like, Wanda could kill anyone if she wanted to, but wears Hello Kitty pyjamas”

Wanda shifted in her chair, smirking as she straightened the offending pyjamas. She turned to her parents. “So, you guys are really okay with them staying?” she asked.

“Of course we are,” Laura reassured. Wanda grinned and threw herself at her parents, hugging both of them tightly.

“Thank you,” she whispered. She pulled back and turned back to Anya. “I’ll help you with your stuff from the car and then I can show you where you’re staying”

Anya nodded and the two of them and Lorna went and grabbed a couple of large suitcases from the car, before heading up the stairs. Wanda was just about to open the door leading to the second set of stairs when she heard the door to Lila’s room squeak open.

“Wanda, are they?” she asked nervously, eyeing up Lorna and Anya.

“They’re my sisters, Lorna Dane and Anya Eisenhardt,” Wanda explained. “They’re both going to be staying with us for a while”

“Wow, you have a lot of sisters now,” Lila laughed, seemingly excepting the explanation. “Where’s everyone else, I’m hungry”

“I think I just heard Mom go into the kitchen, and don’t tell Dad that you’re hungry,” she warned. “He will say it’s because you haven’t eaten all year”

Lila rolled her eyes. “He’ll say it anyway,” she complained. “He does every year, he’s an idiot”

They waited until Lila had disappeared down the stairs before they headed up. Lorna walked ahead and dumped her suitcase on the floor, before flopping down on her bed, still clutching the stuffed elephant tightly to her chest. “So, I’m presuming that was Lila, the little sister that you mentioned”

Anya froze as she pulled her suitcase onto the other bed. “You have another little sister? And actually, you mentioned “Mom” and “Dad” to her. Who are they, may I ask?”

Wanda pressed the door closed and leant back against it. “Clint and Laura Barton,” she began to explain. “They’re my unofficial adoptive parents. It’s hard to explain; they took me in after Sokovia. I lost Pietro, the only family I had left back then, and they let me into theirs, like I was their own”

“I didn’t say already, but I’m really sorry about Pietro,” Anya said. “And I’m so sorry that me and Lorna never met him. He was our brother too and we never even knew he existed”

“That’s not your fault,” Wanda reassured. “I didn’t know that you guys existed until yesterday, so I’m in the wrong just as much as you guys”

“Well, we’re all here now,” Lorna said. “Shit, that was really cliché. Let’s pretend that I never said that”

Anya laughed at her bumbling younger sister and pulled her into a hug. She looked up at Wanda. “Feel free to join us”

Wanda stepped over and wrapped her arms around the other two girls. “For what it’s worth, I agree with your cliché”

Lorna groaned when she felt Anya nod against her. “You guys are the worst, literally the absolute worst”

***

A thousand miles away, Kamala sat on the edge of a building in New Jersey, her elongated legs hanging off the side, shifting lazily in the wind. She drew them back up to normal length and stood up when she saw a figure in black and red swinging towards her. He landed with a practiced ease a few feet away from her.

“So,” Miles said as he pulled the mask off. “What was so important that you made me come all the way over from New York to Jersey”

Kamala pulled a thick book from her backpack and presented to Miles. “When the Young Avengers went away before Christmas, I was looking at something down in the basement and the tunnels, when I was down there, I found a door that led back up to the other side of the street, you know, the one we saw Luna going into. And then, there was this other one that took me a couple of days to open, seriously the security on that think…”

“Kamala!” Miles interrupted. “Is this going somewhere? What does this have to do with this book?”

“It’s a family photo album,” Kamala corrected. “I found it in the tiny little apartment that they have hidden down there, where Luna is apparently living. Check it out”

Miles opened the photo album and stared at the pictures in shock. “Holy shit, no way”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you may have noticed, I have changed the origin story for the Maximoff family quite a bit from the comics, but if Marvel can, then so can I ;-) xx


	20. Multiple Car Collision On 4th Street

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd just like to start this out by saying that I have never been to San Francisco, I just picked a random street of google maps, so sorry if this sounds wrong to anyone who lives there

The shrill ringing of Scott’s phone cut through the comfortable silence in the farmhouse. Scott groaned and rolled over in bed and grabbed his phone off his nightstand. “Avengers safe house; cute one speaking. How may I help you?”

“Do you ever bother to check the caller ID, because I feel like that isn’t something you should be saying to your ex-wife,” Maggie said with a sigh. “And you sound like you’ve just woken up. How are you still in bed, you’re ahead of us”

“Did you call me to nag me about my sleep-wake schedule?” he asked. “Because I feel like that isn’t something you should be saying to your ex-husband. That’s not why you called though, is it?”

Scott heard Maggie sigh at the other end of the line. “It’s not. Listen, don’t worry, but have you heard from Hope at all in the last couple of days, because I haven’t seen her in a while. I can’t get a hold of her or Hank”

“You keep trying to get a hold of her, I can ask Tony to try and track them down,” Scott suggested. “Go to our place, she might just be at home. If she’s not, there’s a spare key for Hank’s place on the key rack by the door. They might both be round there working on the Wasp suit and forgotten that the rest of the world still exists”

“Okay,” Maggie agreed. “Listen, you’ll call me if you find anything out, okay?”

“Okay”. Scott hung up the phone and quickly dialled a different number. “Hey Tony, you got a minute, I need a favour...”

***

Tony didn’t call back for almost three hours. As soon as Scott heard his phone ring, he grabbed it from his pocket and excused himself from the dining table, almost knocking his lunch as he went.

“Tony, have you found Hope?” he asked eagerly.

“Yeah, I’ve tracking her on traffic cams, which wasn’t easy by the way, what with me blocking the government from tracking her visits to you and all,” Tony began to ramble. “She left San Francisco yesterday and is heading straight for you. ETA at the farmhouse, I’d say you’ve got another good few hours before she gets there”

“So, they’re okay?” Scott laughed lightly. “We’ve been worried for nothing, just an impromptu visit out here”

“Hank’s not with her,” Tony added, interrupting Scott’s relief. “There was a car crash on 4th Street in San Francisco yesterday. A drunk driver went the wrong way down and hit several other cars and a school bus. Hank was caught up in it, he’s in critical condition in the ICU. They don’t think he’s going to make it”

“And Hope just left?” Scott asked shocked.

“Hospital security tapes show the doctor explaining to her that it doesn’t look good. He leaves, and she waits a few minutes before leaving. I tracked her all the way to your apartment and then out towards you lot,” Tony said, retracing Hope’s steps. “She’s going to be in shock, so expect her to be acting a little weird when she gets there, okay? And if you guys need anything, just let me know and I will help in any way I can”

“Thanks,” Scott replied. “I’ll let you know when she turns up”. He hung up and called another number. “Maggie, hi. I’ve heard back from Tony, and it’s not good news”

***

The sky outside the farmhouse had gone dark when a pair of headlights cut through the darkness. Wanda exchanged a quick glance with her parents before quickly ushering her younger siblings out of the room, Lorna and Anya following behind her.

Scott ran outside to meet Hope at her car. “I heard about what happened to Hank,” he said as he came to a stop next to her opening door. “I am so sorry”

“That’s okay,” she said with an eerily cheerful smile. “I’m gonna go inside; I’ve been driving pretty much non-stop since yesterday and really need a sleep. I’m guessing I’m with you again”. Scott could only wordlessly nod at her. She smiled at him a second time, before grabbing her bag from the back of the car and heading inside.

“That’s not good,” he muttered to himself as he followed after her. Laura caught him as he came through the door.

“Is she okay?” Laura asked. “She went straight upstairs before I could even talk to her. Poor girl, she must be devastated”

“Yeah, I’m not so sure,” Scott replied. “She was smiling and weirdly cheerful and kept avoiding the subject”

“Oh, this isn’t good,” Laura said. “My mom was like this after my grandad died. And, when my brother got sent to jail, the first time at least. She’s going to act like it’s nothing for a while and then it’ll hit her all at once. Just make sure you’re there for her when it happens”

“I will,” Scott promised, quickly following after Hope. He caught up with her just as she was unpacking her bag.

“Hey,” she said with a grin. She threw a t-shirt at his face. “Are you going to help or what? Oh, and Cassie says hi, she really misses you. Hopefully she’ll be able to come visit you soon. I think that it would be good for both of you”. Scott just nodded in agreement and watched as she changed and got into bed.

“Okay, you just get settled, I’ll just be a moment,” he said before stepping out of the room, dialling a number as he went. She picked up on the first dial. “Hey Maggie. Hope’s here and it’s not good”

***

Hope lay still in bed, the quilt pulled up tight over her shoulder as she listened to Scott call Maggie. She burrowed deeper into the bed and forced a smile back onto her face. “Everything’s going to be fine. Everything’s going to be fine. Everything’s going to be fine,” she muttered, repeating the same five words to herself over and over again. Her words trailed off as the door clicked open and Scott re-entered the room. She closed her eyes and feigned sleep as she felt the bed dip and settle beside her.

Scott leant over and wrapped his arms around her. “Hope? I know you’re awake. Are you okay? Please, just say something to me”

“Everything’s going to be fine,” she said, her voice so quiet it was barely audible.

“What did you say?” Scott asked.

“Everything’s going to be fine,” she repeated, louder this time. “Everything’s going to be fine…”

***

Hope continued to act in the same way for the next few days, as if nothing was wrong at all when she was in front of the others, and quietly muttering “everything’s going to be fine” to herself when she was alone.

After a couple of days, Scott caught Wanda alone in the kitchen. “Hey,” he said.

“This is about Hope, isn’t it?” she asked. She put down the bowl of cookie dough she’d been mixing and turned to face him. “I’ve tried to have a look into her mind, but for some reason, I can’t. Maybe whatever she’s telling herself has completely blocked me from being able to see, but I’m trying. I really am”

“Thanks,” Scott said. He reached over and tried to swipe a blob of dough from the bowl, but Wanda swatted his hand away.

“Leave that alone,” she ordered. “Those are for Hope; people’s minds are a lot easier to get a read on if they’re distracted by food”

***

Two weeks after Hope arrived, Maggie called again. It was early in the morning when Scott’s phone rang. He slipped out of the room before answering the call. Hope stirred when she felt him leave, groaning into her pillow. She sat up and stretched slightly, trying to listen to Scott’s conversation on the other side of the door.

“Everything’s going to be fine,” she began to mutter. “Everything’s going to be fine”

“Okay,” she heard him say before hanging up. She reached behind her and grabbed a pillow, hugging it tightly to her chest. She looked up as he came back into the room, her mutterings trailing off.

“It’s not good, is it?” she asked. Scott didn’t have to say anything; his face gave it all away. She bit her lip and buried her head into the pillow as silent sobs wracked her body. Scott crossed the room in a couple of strides and wrapped his arms around Hope.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, rubbing her back soothingly. “Maggie said she’d sort everything out; you don’t have to do anything that you don’t want to right now. You don’t even have to go back to San Francisco yet if you don’t want to. Clint and Laura have said that you’re welcome here for as long as you need to be. I know this is rough right now, but we’re here for you, I’m here for you, okay? You don’t have to do this alone”

“He’s gone,” she finally choked out. “He was the only family I had left and now he’s gone. I just don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do”. Hope leant forward and pressed her head against Scott’s chest as she continued to cry quietly. He rested his head atop hers and forced himself not to cry as well, trying to be strong for her.

***

Ying lowered the tray of food to the table in front of her awkwardly. She didn’t mind the other girls, but today, she was alone. She hadn’t seen her friend all morning and was beginning to worry. Maybe she’d go check on her after breakfast if they allowed her before she had to be in the labs. She had just picked up her spoon when another girl slammed down opposite her.

“Hey Ying,” Trixie greeted brightly. “Where’s your friend?”

“I don’t know,” she muttered, pushing the food idly around in her bowl. “I haven’t seen her all morning”

“Maybe she heard the news and decided she wasn’t hungry after all,” Trixie suggested.

Ying finally looked up at the other girl. “What news?” she demanded.

“You didn’t hear?” Trixie asked, astonished. “Everyone’s been talking all morning about it. Apparently Hank Pym’s been killed in a car crash. She probably heard and went straight to the lab. Isn’t she kinda obsessed with his work, you know, Pym Particles and all that?”

Ying didn’t respond. She threw her fork back down on the table and fled the room, ignoring the calls of the staff behind her. She raced back to the dorms, lined with plain beds, handcuffs adorning the bed posts. The room was empty of any other girls. She spun on her heel and ran back past the food hall and down towards the labs, ducking past the guards as they came out of the office. She pushed the door open and was immediately greeted by the icy chill of the cold tundra wind. The window was left open and all of the research on the Pym Particles was missing.

“Nadia!” Ying called out helplessly. “Nadia, where are you?”. She shrieked as the guards came barrelling into the room and began to pull her back. She was going to get punished for running off from breakfast like she’d done, but she didn’t care. “NADIA! NADIA!”

***

“NADIA!”

The sound of Ying’s cries carried far across the tundra. Nadia could hear them as she hurried away, the wind wiping violently in the delicate wings of her suit.

“I’m sorry Ying,” she muttered under her breath. She would come back for her friend, but for now she had to get to America and find her family. “Everything’s going to be fine”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This episode on "I Love Teen Superheroes"...
> 
> I hope somebody will recognise who I was trying to bring in at the end. She is one of my favourite characters from the comics and I'm looking forward to writing more of her in the future xx


	21. Welcome Back?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I saw Black Panther and loved Shuri (who was AWESOME) and I realised that the Shuri already in this fic was different and so I'll admit that the first part of this chapter is just me trying to cover that up

As soon as he left the meeting, Tony called Pepper and told her to meet him at the car in ten minutes. He grabbed the overnight bags they kept for emergencies and raced to meet her. Within twenty minutes of leaving the meeting, Tony and Pepper had left the Avengers compound and were driving towards Iowa.

“Do you mind telling me what’s going on?” Pepper asked as they weaved in and out of traffic.

“We need to get to the safe house. The UN has decided that they want the Avengers back,” Tony explained. “We have twenty four hours before they announce it on TV. If we drive through the night, we should make it there in time”

“Why not call them?”

Tony sighed and gripped the steering wheel harder. “Some stuff you just have to say face to face”

***

In the early hours of the morning, Tony and Pepper pulled up outside the farmhouse. As he turned the engine off, a small jet that was similar to a quinjet uncloaked as it touched down. T’Challa, Sharon and girl who seemed to be roughly sixteen years old stepped out, all carrying bags.

“We got your message,” T’Challa called to Tony. “We came as quick as we could”

“Who’s that?” Tony asked, pointing to the girl.

“I’ll explain when we get in,” he promised. “But it’s kinda weird”

Before Tony could respond, the door to the house was thrown open. Lorna was stood in the door in her pyjamas, hair ruffled up to the side as if she’d just gotten out of bed, which she’d most likely had. “Are you guys coming in or what?” she asked. “Because it is three in the morning and we all just got out of bed for this”

The group outside quickly hurried in, leaving their bags in a small pile just inside the doorway. The girl looked around in amusement as she followed the others through to the kitchen.

“So,” she said, looking over to T’Challa. “This is where your friends have been hiding the last two years. And where you came to visit”. She turned to look at the rest of the group. “On behalf of my country, I would like to apologise for any chaos that my brother may have caused”

“Shuri?” asked everyone who’d met princess on previous visits to Wakanda.

“You look...” Wanda began before trailing off, unsure of what to say.

“Completely different and a lot younger?” Shuri finished for her. She pressed a button on her beaded bracelet and her whole appearance shifted to the woman the others had met in Wakanda. She flicked the button again and went back to looking like the girl that had walked in. “When I made this, I had a running bet with Okoye about how long it would take people from the UN to realise that I was actually a teenager. I won a lot of money off her that way. Three more weeks and Nakia will owe me as well”

“As you can see, it is actually I who must apologise for my sister,” T’Challa grinned.

Shuri’s head whipped round to glare at her brother. “Don’t act like I’m the problem sibling. _You’re_ the one that wore sandals in my lab”

“Why don’t we sit down and talk about whatever it is Tony called us here to talk about?” Sharon suggested, jumping in before the siblings could turn on each other further.

“Thank you,” Tony said.

“It’s nothing,” Sharon replied. “After living with them for two years, you get good at stopping their fights getting out of hand, especially if their mother teaches you how”

Tony waited for everyone to sit down before he began speaking. “I was at a meeting with some people from the UN yesterday, and they have decided that they want you guys back”

A stunned silence fell over the room as everyone stared at Tony. “What’s the _real_ reason you’re here?” Scott asked jokingly.

“The UN wants you back,” Tony repeated. “I’m being serious. In seven hours, the UN will make an official announcement and you will no longer be international fugitives. You can come back”

“What do they want?” Bruce asked. “They aren’t just going to welcome us back with open arms. They’ll want something from us and we have to be careful. We all have a lot to lose and one wrong move could risk everything”

“We’re going to do our best to find out everything we can before we even consider bringing you guys back again,” Tony promised. “I already have Vision and FRIDAY going through their computer systems and Rhodey’s chasing up connections he has in the UN and CIA. We should know everything in a few days. I don’t what we do until then”

“We plan for every possible situation,” Clint decided. “We need to know what we’re going to do if this bad or if this really is our get out of jail free card. But first, I think we should all get some sleep. Thor’s not here, something about Loki sticking Odin in an old people’s home and then pretending to be him, so his room’s free for anyone who needs it. Two double beds”

“Roomies?” Sharon asked, looking over at Shuri, who nodded back.

Everyone was quick to leave and head back to bed. Laura was just turning the lights off outside her room when she heard Lila’s door open.

“Mommy, what’s going on?” the little girl asked sleepily.

 Laura bent down and kissed her daughter’s head. “Go back to bed sweetie,” she said. “We’ll tell you in the morning”

Lila nodded and walked back to her room. Laura waited for her to go before heading to her and Clint’s room. She curled up in the bed beside her husband and screwed her eyes shut, hoping to get a few more hours sleep before the news broke and half the town started calling her.

***

Half the house was downstairs was huddled around the TV when the official announcement was broadcasted live from Washington D.C. Secretary Ross gave the announcement, clearly hating every second of it. He wrapped up his speech quickly and walked away without answering any questions from the press.

“Well, now everyone else knows,” Hope said dejectedly. She had returned to the farmhouse after Hank’s funeral and stayed there ever since. “No going back now”

“I think going back is the whole point,” Scott joked. Hope hit him lightly in the arm.

A phone rang shrilly in the corner. Laura looked at her watch. “47 seconds,” she sighed before picking up the phone. “Hey Tina. Yes, I saw the news. I know. Well...”. Laura took the phone and walked around the corner, leaving the others to talk.

Wanda felt her phone buzz in her pocket. She pulled it out and snorted at the message. It was from Peter.

 **Peter Parker:** Saw the announcement.

Wanda grinned at the picture of the confused maths lady he’d attached with it.

 **Wanda Maximoff:** You’re the one that said we’d be back by next Christmas

 **Peter Parker:** I didn’t think I’d be right! That doesn’t normally happen

Wanda sighed and shoved her phone back in her pocket. She looked around the room. More people had trickled into the room since the announcement, everyone except one.

“Where’s Shuri?” T’Challa asked.

“I think she’s still in bed,” Sharon yelled from the kitchen.

“I’ll go find her,” Wanda offered. She headed upstairs and knocked lightly on Sharon and Shuri’s door before walking in. She stifled a laugh when she saw the other girl.

Shuri was sprawled out in a starfish on her bed. Her phone was on the pillow next to her, plugged into her charger and still open on Tumblr. Wanda took a few tentative steps towards her and lightly shook Shuri’s shoulder. The younger girl groaned at Wanda.

“It’s too early,” she complained.

“It’s almost half ten,” Wanda pointed out.

“And I arrived here from Wakanda at four this morning,” Shuri argued. “And I have been asleep ever since”

“You have a page of Black Panther memes still open on your phone,” Wanda said.

Shuri finally looked up at Wanda. “My brother hates them. So, I need to find the best ones to annoy him. This is very important Wakandan business”

Wanda stared at her for a few moments. “Have you met Lorna yet? Because I feel like the two of you would really get along. And maybe I should make sure that T’Challa and Anya are warned in advance. That would probably be best for them”

“It probably would”

***

“So, you guys might really be coming back,” Peter said.

Wanda glared at the computer. “We have had this conversation three times this week already”

“Yeah, but still!” he said.

“Is that all you have to say?” Wanda asked.

Before Peter could say anything, a loud cry came from the background.  “Brother!” Shuri exclaimed. She walked behind Wanda, so Peter could see her at the other end of the Skype call. She was holding one of the cats up next to her face, small fluffy black paws reaching out to bat her cheeks. “What happened to you? Why are you so small? Who did this to you?”

“Who’s that and what is she doing to Mittens?” Peter asked.

“That’s Panther,” Wanda corrected. “Mittens would’ve clawed her face off by now. And that’s Shuri, T’Challa’s younger sister. She does stuff like that often. She likes to mess with her brother”

Shuri clutched Panther close to her chest. “It is fun,” she grinned. “Was that performance good enough for you guys? Because I need to get it perfect for in front of T’Challa. Not everything can be on the spot hilarious. This level of comedy takes time”

“It was brilliant,” Wanda said. “You gonna get him later?”

Shuri nodded and walked away, cradling Panther close to her chest, the kitten snuggling up against her.

“I like her,” Peter commented.

“Me too,” Wanda agreed. “And seriously, how are to you still so surprised over the news?”

***

“What are we going to do?” Natasha asked. She was sat on her and Bruce’s bed reading a book, her ones of her hands resting on top of her small bump that was just beginning to show.

Bruce looked from where he was sat on the other side of the room. “What do you mean?”

“If all this is true, are we going to go back?” Natasha said. “Before, I wouldn’t have gone back. The UN tried to put controls on us before, who’s to say that they won’t do it again. But, life on the run isn’t fun, constantly looking over your shoulder to make sure somebody isn’t about to kill you. That life is no way to raise a child”

“Then we go back,” Bruce decided. Natasha looked at him sceptically. “We don’t exactly have a lot of other options and sure, being an Avenger is dangerous, but our kid isn’t going on any missions with us. He’ll be safe at the compound. And will definitely have plenty of highly skilled fighters for aunts and uncles to keep him safe”

“He?” Natasha asked with a small grin.

Brue shrugged. “I don’t know. It just felt right”

“Well, I hope you’re happy to have a daughter, because as the mother currently growing a baby inside of her, I think it’s a girl,” she grinned.

Bruce smiled widely at her. “You know I would be; it’s an absolute miracle that we’ve managed to have a kid in the first place and I will love him, or her, no matter what. But you do realise this now means a bet has been established”

Natasha laughed loudly. “Oh, you are so on”

***

“What are we doing in here?” Anya asked. Laura and Clint had called Wanda, Lorna and Anya into their room. The three girls were sat on the bed; Clint and Laura were sat opposite on the small sofa in the room.

“We wanted to talk with you three about what to do with this whole thing about the Accords,” Laura explained. “But there’s something else that we need to think about”

“Mom, what’s going on?” Wanda asked. Her eyes flitted back and forth between her parents; neither of them met her look. “What aren’t you telling us?”

“We had a phone call from Noh-Varr a couple of weeks ago,” Clint started to explain. He spoke to the group but looked over at Wanda. “The Young Avengers had been suspicious of something with Tommy, Billy and Luna for a while. Your Mom and I also realised that something wasn’t quite right. Noh-Varr said he’d call us as soon as he found out what was going on. We should’ve told you sooner, but…”

Wanda stared at him as he trailed off. “But what?” she demanded. “What aren’t you telling us?”

“They’re your family,” Laura supplied, her husband sat silently beside her.

“I’ve never heard of them before in my entire life,” Anya said. “And Dad always talked about our family from back in Sokovia”

“They’re not from Sokovia,” Clint said. “From what we can tell, they’re from Upstate New York. They grew up in the Avengers Compound”

“You mean the one that was only built three years ago?” Lorna asked sarcastically. “Because I feel like that you messed up a little bit with the math there”

“That’s because when they’ve come from, the compound is a lot older than that, right?” Wanda said. She chewed nervously on her lower lip as she stared over at her parents, waiting for an answer. “It sounds weird, I know, but weird is just what we do”

“They are from the future,” Laura confirmed.

“Surname,” Anya asked. “Did you get a surname, figure out which one of us…” Anya trailed off, unsure how to phrase the rest of her sentence.

“Maximoff,” Clint replied quickly.

“So, they’re mine,” Wanda whispered. “This is insane. All three of them are Maximoffs?”

“Luna is Tommy and Billy’s cousin,” Laura said.

“But Wanda’s the only Maximoff here,” Lorna pointed out. “Unless either me or Anya change our names for some reason”

“You don’t,” Wanda spoke up. “That’s not what happened, or what’s going to happen, whatever. Luna’s a Maximoff because she’s Pietro’s daughter. I don’t know how I didn’t see it when I first met her, but she looks so much like my brother, her father, it’s unbelievable. Pietro’s going to come back, right?”

Laura nodded, and Wanda grinned widely.

“But why are they here?” Anya asked. “Why did they come back?”

Clint and Laura explained to the girls what Noh-Varr had told them about what happened at the protest and then the attack at the Avengers Compound years later. Lorna started nervously shifting with her hands when they said what happened to Anya. When they were done, Anya and Lorna excused themselves from the room, leaving Wanda to talk alone with her parents.

“Did anyone get hurt when I caused that blast?” she asked.

“Noh-Varr wouldn’t tell us everything that he’d been told, he said it was too dangerous for us to know everything about our own futures,” Laura answered. “Which I’m guessing means that people did get hurt”

Wanda nodded silently, her eyes flickering so they were looking down at the ground instead of at Clint and Laura.

“There was one other thing he mentioned,” Clint added. Wanda’s gaze lifted back up. “Tommy and Billy took your surname, your full surname: Maximoff-Barton”

“So, at some point, I’m going to change my name. Are you two okay with that?” she asked.

“Honestly, I was pretty sure that it was one of us that suggested that,” Laura joked, smiling warmly at Wanda. When the girl didn’t return her smile, her face turned serious for a second. “Of course, we’re overjoyed that you took our name. You’re our daughter and we love you. And we’re going to love those kids when they’re born”

“This is single easily the weirdest conversation we’ve ever had,” Wanda laughed. “They took my name, but did you get anything from them about who their dad is?”

“We didn’t,” Clint said. “Which, to be honest, I’m kinda glad about. I don’t want to know who, you know…” Clint clicked his fingers together as he tried to come up with the least awkward way to phrase it. “…made children with”

Laura and Wanda stared at him in, a mixture of shock, confusion and mild and disgust, before the three of them started laughing.

***

Lorna leant back against her headboard as she heard the muffled laughter come from downstairs. She sighed and closed her eyes. “How are they laughing like that?” she asked. Anya looked over at her when she spoke up. “Like nothing’s changed. Like they didn’t hear what happened to you. To all of us”

“They’re just dealing with it differently,” Anya said. “And Wanda did juts get told those kids she met, who are almost the same age as her, are her kids and that her dead brother comes back alive. If laughing about it helps her makes sense of it all, then let her”

“But you died, or you’re going to die, I don’t know how to say,” Lorna rambled angrily. “But whichever way you look at it, you die because I think it’s a good idea to go to a protest where I’m definitely going to be a target to try and find Dad”

“That’s not your fault,” Anya reassured. She moved over to sit with her sister and wrapped her arm around Lorna’s shoulders. “You have always wanted to protect everyone in this family; if you thought that there was a chance you could find Dad and bring him home, then you would take it no matter the risk. I cannot blame you for that, and you can’t either”

“But you die, Anya, how can you keep excusing that,” she cried. “I get you killed”

“Like I said, you’ve always thought it was your job to protect everyone in this family, but it isn’t,” Anya explained. “As much as you like to pretend you’re older than you are, you are sixteen years old, and you are still my baby sister. It is my job to protect you, not the other way around. I don’t want to die, but if it means that you don’t, then I’m happy, because you’ll be okay”

“No, I won’t,” Lorna sobbed. “You’re going to die, nothing will make that okay. I won’t be okay”. Lorna broke down sobbing and allowed Anya to pull her closer. A small damp patch began to form on the top of her hair as Anya cried with her.

***

Wanda woke in the night a few days full of debate later. Nobody had been able to decide yet what they were going to do with the Accords, so they couldn’t be heading back to the compound yet. Wanda pulled her robe over her shoulders and dashed out her room just in time to see Lorna heading out the door to the attic.

“What are you doing?” Wanda exclaimed quietly.

“I’m leaving, I need to go back to Chicago,” Lorna explained. “I have to find Dad. Maybe someone at the Mutant Underground knows where he is”

“Why?” Wanda demanded. “Why now? We are so close to getting everything with the Accords sorted; Tony’s making deals for you, Anya and Erik to be pardoned as well. And the Mutant Underground will be left alone. Why can’t you wait until then?”

“Because every second we waste waiting for someone in the government to say it’s okay for us just walk down the damn street, the less time we have to save Anya,” Lorna argued. Wanda froze when she realised what Lorna was talking about. “Anya is going to die because I go somewhere dangerous just to find Dad. If I find him before then, she won’t, she’ll be fine. I have to do this”. Wanda stood and stared at her sister. “Isn’t this the part where you’re supposed to try and stop me”

“I’m not stopping you,” Wanda said. “I’m coming with you. Anya’s my sister too; I have to try and help as well”

“Maybe I can help as well”. Both Wanda and Lorna turned to look at Shuri, who was sat on the stairs leading up to the attic. “I mean, why not? Could be fun. But you’re going to have to fill me in on the part where you know your sister is going to get killed”

“Wanda’s kids from the future told us,” Lorna explained bluntly. “It was weird. You two pack quick and meet me outside. We’ll have to take Laura’s car”

“There’s one in the quinjet my brother, Sharon and I arrived in,” Shuri added. “I created the tracking system in it, so if I block it, they won’t ever find us”

The other two girls nodded and they all quietly raced back to their rooms. Wanda hurriedly shoved clothes into a small bag, before dashing back outside again. She paused in front of her parent’s room and stared at the door. “I’m sorry,” she muttered before running down to where Shuri and Lorna were waiting outside. The three girls ran across the field towards the Wakandan quinjet and ten minutes later, they were pulling out of the woods surrounding the farm and driving away into the night.

“Do you feel weird?” Lorna asked. “Leaving the farm, I mean. I haven’t left since January and it feels strange to be going back out into the world. I can’t imagine what it must be like for you”

“It does feel odd. This is the first time I’m going anywhere since August last year,” Wanda admitted. “But that was to Wakanda, where I knew it would be safe. This is different. If someone catches us, things could go wrong very quickly, so we have to be careful”

“Don’t worry,” Shuri reassured as she drove them through the silent town of Waverly. “Generations of my family have kept Wakanda, a whole country hidden from the world for centuries. We are three girls; how hard can it be?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone has ideas for names for Bruce and Nat's baby, I am open to suggestions
> 
> Also, if anyone has any requests for characters from the comics, please tell me as I am always open to new ideas and characters to work with xx


	22. Road Trip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *kicks Infinity War canon under the desk* so, as I was saying
> 
> To kind of makeup for the really delayed update, this chapter is very long (my longest yet I think) and I hope you enjoy it

“How hard could it be?”

As it turned out, very hard. After only driving for a few hours, the girls reached Chicago just as the sun began to rise. Wanda stared out the window at the city that her sister called home as Lorna directed them through the city. The car pulled to a stop on a quiet street lined with houses. Lorna slid into the middle of the back seat and pulled herself forward, so she was hovering between the two girls in the front.

“That’s home,” she said, pointing to one of the houses. “We shouldn’t go in; Sentinel Services will be monitoring the place. I just wanted to see it”

Shuri leant over Wanda and pulled a small tablet out of the glove compartment and began to rapidly type. “Sentinel Services,” she muttered. After a few moments, what appeared to be a classified government database popped up on screen. “They haven’t been here in months, not since Anya left the city. They’re still looking for you in Nevada, they think you’ve run south and the others are meeting you there. We can go in if you want”

“We take a day to rest and then we go to the Mutant Underground tonight,” Wanda suggested. The others nodded, and the three girls dashed across the street, backpacks thrown over shoulders.

“Damn, I don’t have a key,” Lorna hissed when they reached the door. She gave the door a little shove before stopping and staring at the lock. She brought her hand in close to the door and flicked her wrist. The lock clicked, and the door swung open. “Magnetic field manipulation; and suddenly every single time that I was stuck waiting outside in the rain because I forgot my key seems like a waste of time. And Anya’s when she yelled at me for forgetting my key. If she was in a good mood she’d let me in first”

Wanda snorted as they all went inside. Lorna quickly slammed the door behind them and locked the door with a spare key hanging from a hook next to the door. She leant back against the door stared around. A few small tears began to trickle her cheeks.

“Are you okay?” Wanda asked.

“I’m home,” she whispered. “Everything is the same, nothing has changed. But at the same time, everything has. I don’t know where Dad is. I have no idea if Sonya and Clarice even got away or if Sentinel Services got them. And, according to my time travelling niece and nephews, my actions will get my sister killed. So, I think I’m as okay as I can be, given the circumstances”

She walked towards the stairs and disappeared up them. Shuri and Wanda shared a look before following her.

“Where are we staying?” Shuri asked.

Lorna pushed a door open to a simply decorated room. The walls were an off-white and the carpet was a pale purple. A painting of a meadow full of flowers in beautiful pastels was hung on the wall opposite the window, the early morning sun falling on it. “This is the spare room,” Lorna said.

Shuri smiled and walked in to the room. She dumped her bag on the floor and flopped down on the bed with a soft thud, groaning slightly as she landed. “I am so tired,” she said. Without another word, she shuffled down to the other end of the bed and crawled under the sheets.

Lorna shut the door, leaving Shuri in the room by herself. She led Wanda back to the staircase and went up another flight of stairs. They arrived on a small landing with a door opposite and another two set to either side. She pushed open the door to the left and let it swing open.

“That’s Anya’s room,” she said.

Wanda stepped in and looked around. The drawers of the dresser and the doors of the wardrobe were still hanging open from when Anya left in hurry earlier in the year. The bookshelves were lined with medical textbooks left over from college and sheets of paper were scattered over the desk. The covers on the bed were unmade and the curtains half drawn. A few framed photos were hung on the wall. Wanda shifted her bag off her shoulder and on to the chair of the desk as she walked over to one off the photos. The photo was of Anya when she five years old. She was sat on a worn-out sofa, her parents sat on either side. Wanda pulled the photo off the wall and held it close to her as she stared down.

“Mom,” she whispered. A lone tear fell on top of the glass. “The only photos me and Pietro had of our parents were destroyed when the shell hit. I haven’t seen her face in a decade. I miss them”

“That’s one of the few things Anya has from when she and Dad fled Sokovia,” Lorna explained. “Dad had a small backpack of clothes, she had a pink toy bunny rabbit, her mother’s necklace and that photo”. She lifted a small necklace off the dresser and held it up to the light. It was a shimmering deep red stone set in silver frame, hanging from a matching chain. “She stopped wearing it when she started working at the hospital, didn’t want anything to happen to it”

Wanda looked at the necklace. “She used to tell me about that necklace, Mom did. It was passed down on her grandmother’s side for generations. No matter how hard things got, she could never sell it. She told me that she’d given it to Anya. She said she hoped that it was still with her somehow. I guess she meant that whoever found Anya’s body had had the decency to bury her with, not take it for themselves; she never would’ve guessed it was over here with Anya”

“I wish I could’ve met her,” Lorna said. “You and Anya, and Dad, all talk about her with so much love, I’m sorry I never got to meet someone that made everyone she knew feel that loved”

Wanda crossed the room and pulled her younger sister into a hug. Lorna was a few inches shorter than her, so she ended up crushed into Wanda’s chest, her hair ruffled up all around her face.

“She would’ve loved you as well,” Wanda promised. “If she had known you, she would’ve taken you into our family without a second thought”

Lorna managed to squirm free from her sister’s grasp. “My room is just across from here,” she explained, wiping a few stray tears from the corners of her eyes. “The other room is a bathroom if you want it. I’m going to bed, I’ll see you in a few hours”

Wanda watched as her sister left the room and closed the door behind her. She heard the sound of another door opening and closing a few seconds later, quickly followed by the soft thud of someone throwing themselves down on a bed. She smirked slightly to herself, before copying her sister and getting into bed.

***

Wanda woke to the smell of food wafting up from the kitchen. She pushed Anya’s covers off herself and headed downstairs. Shuri was stood in the kitchen, pushing food around in a frying pan.

“Morning sleepyhead,” Shuri said without looking up. “I went on a supply run while you were still asleep, thought it would be safer if I went, nobody would recognise me”

Wanda nodded and walked over. She frowned when she saw what Shuri was cooking. “Is that bacon?” she asked. “You do realise that me and Lorna are Jewish, right?”

“I bought you guys toaster waffles,” she explained, nodding to a box on the side. “There’s fresh berries in the fridge as well, help yourself. Lorna already took some. I just really wanted bacon”

“Where did Lorna go?” Wanda asked as she began to make herself a plate of waffles.

“She went upstairs, to your dad’s study I think” Shuri said. She placed the slices of bacon in a roll and turned back to Wanda. “Shall we go upstairs and see what that idiot sister of yours is up to?”

Wanda nodded as she squirted a load of cream onto her plate of waffles. She grabbed a fork and the two girls went off to find Lorna. The study was at the back of the house and the door was slightly ajar. Wanda and Shuri stepped in and went and stood by Lorna, who was kneeling by the window. She had a large pair of binoculars and was focused on w window in the house that backed onto the garden a few doors down. Shuri and Wanda followed her line of sight just as a woman placed a small sheet of paper in the window.

“She’s not here,” Lorna read out from the note.

“Who’s she?” Wanda asked.

“The girl reading this,” Shuri said

“Shuri!” Wanda exclaimed, lightly hitting the other girl in the arm. “Let the meme die”

“I swear to god I will stab you with my waffle fork,” Lorna promised. “Don’t make me”

“Hey, you almost made me drop my sandwich,” Shuri protested. She moved over to the big wooden desk that took up most of the room and sat on the plush chair behind it, propping her feet up on the desk. “But seriously, who is she?”

“My friend Sonya Simonson,” Lorna began to explain. “She’s also a mutant. She and her parents live in that house over there. Well, she did. We used to leave each other messages in the windows when we were little, before we had phones. Sentinel Services took my phone when they arrested me, so she’s probably been leaving notes for me. Until she left at least. Her mom must’ve seen us get here earlier and left a note for us”

“Where do you think she is?” Wanda asked. She and Lorna had sat on the floor, eating their waffles with the plates balanced on their laps.

“Hopefully she’s at the Mutant Underground, or at least someone there will know where she went,” Lorna said. “We should wait until it’s dark before we go there, it’ll be safer that way”

“What are we going to do until then?” Shuri asked.

Wanda eyed some of the thick books lining the walls. “Baby photos,” she said with a grin as she jumped to her feet and ran over to the shelves.

“No!”

***

“We’re only a few hours away from Waverly,” Wanda pointed out as she paused the game of Mario Kart. “They could’ve been here hours ago if they wanted to come after us. So why haven’t they?”

“Maybe they didn’t find the note,” Shuri suggested.

“I left it on my pillow, there’s no way Anya wouldn’t have seen it,” Lorna said.

Wanda grabbed the phone and began to dial a number. She held her phone up to her ear. Whoever was on the other end picked up after a few seconds. “Hey Mom”

***

Laura was sat in the living room, drinking coffee and talking with the PTA when the phone rang. Lila grabbed the phone and ran into the room before Laura could do anything.

“I don’t recognise the number,” she said, holding the phone out to her mother.

Tina looked over at the phone. “Looks like it’s coming from somewhere in Chicago”

Laura took the phone from her daughter. “I have to take this,” she said to her friends. She turned to Lila. “Can you go get your Dad for me?”

“But what about them?” Lila whispered.

“Just go,” Laura said. Lila nodded and run off upstairs to where the adults were hidden away in the attic. Laura watched her go for a second before pressing the answer button on the phone. “Hey sweetie, are you okay?”

“Hey Mom,” Wanda replied. “Did you guys get Lorna’s note by any chance?”

“You mean the one saying that you two and Shuri had left for Chicago?” Laura asked. She waved Clint over when she saw him stick is head round the living room door. She lead him over to the kitchen and placed the phone on the table, switching it to speaker phone. “Hey, your Dad’s here as well”

“What’s happening right now?” Stephanie said to Tina. The other woman shrugged in confusion.

“Mom and Dad are talking with Wanda right now,” Lila explained before she walked away to go play with the rest of the PTA’s kids outside.

“Hey Wanda, how are you three doing?” Clint asked sarcastically. “Settling in at the Mutant Underground alright?”

“Are you guys coming after us or not?” Wanda asked bluntly. “You guys are only a few hours away, you should be here by now; we’ve been playing Mario Kart for hours”

Clint and Laura looked over at each other for a moment before they turned their attention back to the phone. “We’re not coming,” Clint explained after a few moments.

“Oh,” Wanda said quietly. There was a few seconds silence before she hung up the phone.

Laura sighed in and rested her head in her hands. Clint rubbed her back reassuringly. “That could’ve gone better,” he said.

“I wish we could just explain to her why we’re letting her go,” Laura replied.

A small cough from the living room caught their attention. The two turned to look, both suddenly remembering that half the PTA was sat there.

“What’s he doing there?” Tina asked. Stephanie had leant forward in her chair with an excited grin on her face.

“Technically he and the others aren’t fugitives now, so I’m not doing anything illegal anymore,” Laura reasoned as the others gaped in shock.

“Others?” Tina asked.

“Anymore?” added Stephanie.

Clint walked over and sat down on the smaller sofa with a load thud. “So, about two years ago…”

Laura sighed and went and sat with her husband as he began to catch the town gossips up on the biggest bit of gossip they’d heard, and somehow managed to miss, in years.

***

“They’re not coming,” Wanda said as she hung the phone. She curled in on herself slightly. “I don’t know why I’m so bothered by it. If they came we’d have to go home. But I just feel like that by not coming, it’s like they don’t care. Am I being stupid?”

“Of course you’re not,” Lorna reassured. “They’re your family and if you feels like that they’ve just let you, then it’s gonna suck. Anya’s not coming after us either, so I kinda get how you feel”

“My brother isn’t coming either,” Shuri added. “But that’s probably because he doesn’t want me to send that video of him going flying across the room and crashing into the wall with mmm watcha say edited over the top being sent to everyone in Wakanda”

“You would do that?” Wanda asked.

“Of course I would,” Shuri said. “I’ve sent stuff like that to the whole country before and I will do it again. And he knows it”

Lorna handed her sister the Wii remote. “You still want to play? It’s a good distraction”

Wanda grabbed to remote. “Depends, are you ready to fall off Rainbow Road?”

“Oh, you are so on”

 Shuri laughed at the sisters as she restarted the game.

“Oh, you so did not just blue shell me!”

***

The three girls piled back into the car not long after nightfall. Lorna sat up front this time, directing Shuri towards an old abandoned building. It was three floors high and the whole area was surrounded by a thick belt of trees, which were sectioned off by a tall wire fence.

“What is this place?” Shuri asked as she looked at the old building.

“It used to be a hospital for mutants back in the 60s, before we became illegal,” Lorna explained. “The Mutant Underground decided to use it as the HQ for this area. Seemed fitting really”

The three girls began to walk towards the building. Lorna led the way, three small metal blades tucked in her boots. The frame of the old automatic sliding doors was still in place, the glass panel smashed out leaving an empty gap to step through. Lorna froze at the sight of shattered glass strewn all over the floor and the smashed reception desk.

“This isn’t right,” she said. “We removed all the glass after the window got smashed, and we used that desk. Something’s wrong”

She picked up the pace to a jog as she led her way through the winding corridors of the hospital. Doors lined the way, half hanging open to reveal empty rooms, old hospital beds lined with brightly coloured bed sheets. The sheets looked new, not like something that had been sitting abandoned for over fifty years, yet a fine layer of dust covered every surface. As they went further in, the light from the moon outside faded and the corridor began to be swallowed by darkness. Shuri pulled a small torch out of her pocket. It was barely the size of a pencil, yet completely filled the corridors with light.

“They’ve gone, they’ve all gone,” Lorna muttered to herself as they kept going. She turned the corner ahead of them a few moments before the other two. No sooner had she gone out of sight, she let out a loud scream.

Shuri and Wanda raced to reach her. They gasped in shock when they saw the sight in front of them: old and dried patches of blood were splattered all over the floor, the stale smell filling the room. There were no bodies, but there had obviously been a bloodbath here.

Lorna crumpled to her knees in shock, her hands coming up to cover her mouth, still open in a silent scream. “They’re dead,” she sobbed. “All of them are dead”

Wanda sat down next to her sister and wrapped her arms around her. “Don’t think like that,” she said. “You saw that sign in Sonya’s window. Why would her parents have put that there if she was dead? You told me that the Mutant Underground was bigger than just this one location. Maybe she and the others are there”

Lorna nodded and allowed Wanda to help her to her feet. The three made a quick exit from the building and soon Shuri was speeding through the streets back to Lorna’s house. She pulled up on the street and barely had time to fully stop the car before Lorna was out and running down the path towards the corner. Wanda and Shuri raced after her, just catching as she started banging on the door to house the presumed was Sonya’s parents. The door opened, and Lorna barged in before anyone could say a word.

 A smallish woman remained stood at the door, peering down at the other two girls. “Are you two friends of Lorna’s?” she asked. Shuri and Wanda exchanged a quick look before nodding at the woman. “Well come on in then. Can I get you anything to eat? I’ll get you girls something, you just make yourselves at home”

She walked off towards the kitchen leaving Shuri and Wanda to close the door behind them. From behind a slightly ajar door, Wanda could hear the sound of her sister ranting and pacing. She entered the room to find exactly that.

“So, you haven’t seen Sonya or Clarice in two months?” Lorna asked as she paced up and down the room.

A tall woman with long black hair sighed from where she was sat in an armchair. “No, Cathy and I haven’t seen our daughter or anyone else from the Mutant Underground since a couple of weeks after Anya left”

“What happened there?” Lorna said. “We went to the Underground and the whole places was deserted and there was blood all over the main room”

“Sentinel Services hit the place less than a day after Anya left to find you. They must’ve noticed she wasn’t home and thought that someone there would know where she went,” the first woman, Cathy replied as she came into the room with a large plate of sandwiches”

“They knew where the Underground was?” Lorna asked. “But how?”

“We don’t know,” the second woman answered with a sigh. “Sonya said she was able to look at the memories of one of the agents, Jace Turner I think, before they left the building. Lorna, I know it must’ve looked bad, but most of the mutants got away”

Lorna froze in her tracks. “Where did they go?”

“I think most of the families were able to go north and over into Canada, and so did some of the leaders. The rest started to head to some of the stations down south. We had a few staying here for a couple of days, but then they were able to find transport to a station in Ohio. And then a couple of days after that, Sonya and Clarice left during the night. They both left their phones here, so we couldn’t contact them that way. Sonya left a note, said she’d let us know when she was safe, but we haven’t heard anything”

“So, they could be at any of the Mutant Underground stations in the entire US? Great, this is just great,” Lorna said with a sigh as she flopped from onto the sofa. Cathy wordlessly held the plate of sandwiches out to her. Lorna grabbed one and took a bite. “Thanks Cathy”

“You two want one?” Cathy asked. “You’re Wanda, right? Lorna and Anya’s sister?” Wanda nodded as she reached over to take a sandwich. Cathy turned to Shuri. “I’m sorry, I’m not familiar with who you are. Helena, did you catch this young lady’s name?”

“I’m Shuri,” she introduced. “I’m from Wakanda”

“Her brother’s the king,” Lorna added between mouthfuls of food. “She’s royalty”

Cathy and Helena’s eyes widened at the thought of entertaining royalty in their house, but Shuri gave them a wave.

“It’s fine, I’m not here as royalty, I’m here helping my friends,” she said.

Helena and Cathy seemed unsure, but Lorna spoke before they could gather their thoughts.

“So, you have no idea which station they were heading to, not even a general direction?” she asked.

“I’m sorry honey, but they didn’t tell us anything,” Helena apologised. “We didn’t even know they were planning on leaving until we woke in the morning and found them missing”

“Are you planning on staying at your house?” Cathy asked. Lorna nodded. “If we hear anything from them, then we’ll let you know, okay?”

Lorna sighed and stood back up. “Okay. We’re gonna head home now, I’ll see you later, I guess”

“Let me get you girls some food to take with you,” Cathy offered. “You shouldn’t be left to fend for yourselves right now”

Helena led the three girls back to the front door and Cathy reappeared a few moments later with a large bag of food. They thanked her for it and headed back round the block to Lorna’s house. It wasn’t until they’d gotten back through the front door that Wanda realised that something wasn’t quite right.

 “How did she get us all that food so quickly?” she asked as she stared at the bag of food in her hands.

Shuri froze on the spot and turned back to the other two. “And the sandwiches when we got there”

“She’s a mutant,” Lorna explained. “She has short bursts of super speed. She’s also a mother hen, so she ends up using it to make people food. It happens a lot”

“Is she where Sonya got her x-gene from?” Wanda asked.

“Yeah, Sonya’s dad threw them out when he found out they had powers. Cathy met Helena a few years ago,” Lorna said with a smile. “They met because they were both helping with the clear up after New York. They were married less than a year later and moved out here with Helena’s work. Sonya, Clarice and I were in the same class at school with another mutant who could detect other mutants. That’s how we each found out that the others were mutants”

“That is a weirdly large amounts pf mutants in one class,” Wanda commented.

“Chicago is kina a magnet for mutants,” Lorna said.

“Pun intended?” Shuri asked.

“Hella,” Lorna smirked.

Wanda sighed and held her head in her hands. “Do you think it’s because of the Mutant Underground? Because if it is, then we can look up what other cities have large mutant activity and try and figure out where Sonya and Clarice have gone”

“That’s a great idea,” Shuri said. “Except for the fact we people don’t know much about mutants, which means that nobody is going to be reporting on them”

“But they know about Inhumans,” Lorna added. “They’ll easily get those two mixed up, we can use that to try and find more mutants. And Dad has a load of papers in his study about mutant activity all over the country, I’m pretty sure he stole them from the X-Men”

“The what now?” Shuri asked. She looked over at Wanda who shrugged slightly. “You know what, never mind”

“When do we get started?” Lorna asked, itching to go and start searching the papers for any chance of finding her friends.

“After sleep,” Wanda instructed. “I hate to be the adult in charge, but we need sleep. We’ll do this in the morning, okay?”

“Yes mom,” Lorna joked, earning her a jab in the side.

Shuri grinned at the two sisters. “Well I’ll see you two in the morning”. She shot them one last smile before heading off upstairs. Both Lorna and Wanda waited for a moment until they heard the sound of Shuri’s door shutting.

“How are you doing?” Wada asked.

“I’m fine,” Lorna said. Wanda raised one eyebrow at her. “What?”

“Lorna, you are not fine,” Wanda argued. “I saw how you were in the Mutant Underground earlier you were devastated”

“Like you understand!” Lorna snapped. “You don’t know what I’m going through right now”

“My city fell from the sky,” Wanda said. “My home, my people, the place I’d lived for my entire life fell thousands of feet to the ground and I was there. I lost my brother who I thought was the only family I had left. I was ready to stay where I was and fall to the ground with the city and die. I wasn’t just ready, I wanted to die. I know exactly what you’re going through right now Lorna”

Lorna’s eyes fluttered to the ground as she took in what her sister just said. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she muttered.

“Okay,” Wanda said with a sigh. “But remember that I’m here for you if you do”

Lorna nodded before the two girls headed upstairs to bed, neither saying a single word to the other.

***

Wanda was woken the next morning by a rapid knocking on her door. She opened it to see a mildly worried looking Shuri. “What did Lorna do?” she asked.

“She got a message from Cathy and Helena during the night,” Shuri began to explain. “She hasn’t really stopped since then”

Wanda pushed her way past Shuri and raced down the stairs. The door to the study was open and Wanda could already see the piles of papers spilling over the floor from where she was stood.

“Oh hey,” Lorna greeted as Wanda walked into the room. “I couldn’t sleep so I came and had a look to see if Cathy and Helena had put up any more messages, and they had. Take a look”

Wanda grabbed the pair of binoculars and managed to step around the mess all over the floor. She looked through the window and was able to make out the one word message in the window of Sonya’s room. “They’re in Georgia?”

“Atlanta to be more specific!” Lorna declared excitedly. She stood from the floor and slammed some sheets of paper down on the desk next to an open laptop. “I found these reports in the news about some super powered kids in the area, and used Shuri’s computer to hack into the Sentinel Services servers”

“Shuri!” Wanda scolded.

Shuri shrugged slightly. “Eh, if you can’t beat 'em, join em”

“There were tons of other reports on the servers,” Lorna continued, ignoring the other two. “And there’d been an increase in mutant activity in the area since about a week after the attack here. That’s plenty of time to get there from Chicago. Sentinel Services couldn’t lock down on where they thought the Mutant Underground headquarters were, but I think I’ve done it”

“Do I want to know how?” Wanda asked, sure she already knew the answer.

“I found these conspiracy theories in some of the weirder parts of the internet,” Lorna explained, pointing towards the laptop. “There’s a whole area that’s been abandoned for years, but people keep trying to get closer and investigate the sites. But whenever they do, they just get so scared that they turn away. I took me a while, but using a few illegally obtained maps, thanks Shuri, I was able to cross-reference all the stories and pinpoint which building the underground was in”

“And?” Shuri asked excitedly.

“The bank,” Lorna proudly declared, her arms thrown out wildly. “They’re in the bank”

“And how much sleep did you get last night?” Wanda asked.

Lorna’s arms dropped back down to her sides and the crazy grin disappeared from her face. “Seriously? After all that, that’s what you ask. Unbelievable”

“If we leave now, I can have us there by this evening,” Shuri offered. The two younger girls turned to look at Wanda.

“Why am I the one in charge?” Wanda groaned as she hid her face in her hands. She thought for a moment and looked back up at Shuri and Lorna. “Fine, we can leave as soon as we’re packed, but on one condition: Lorna gets some sleep in the car”

***

They were on the road in less than an hour, quickly leaving Chicago behind them. Despite her protests that she was fine, Lorna had fallen asleep soon after she’d gotten in the car, barely having left the street before she was snoring in the backseat.

Wanda turned to face the front from where she’d been watching her sister. She looked over at Shuri, her eyes fixed firmly on the road ahead. “You okay?”

“I’m fine,” Shuri replied. “I’m just wondering if T’Challa has even told my mother what I have done yet. I don’t care if he’s annoyed with me for stealing his car, but I don’t want her to be disappointed with me for leaving him. She told us to stick together why we were in America. Oh well, I think she knows by now that I’m not exactly well known for following instructions”

“We stole the kings of Wakanda’s car,” Wanda laughed. “Have I just put myself back on the international fugitive list?"

"Nah," Shuri joked. “It may belong to my brother, but who do you think out of the two of us has the brains to design this thing?”

“Wait, you designed this car?” Lorna asked.

Shuri shrugged. “I was bored”

***

“We’re almost there,” Lorna said, looking up from the map she’d printed before they left Chicago.

It was almost twelve hours later, and the sky had begun to turn dark. Lorna and Wanda had swapped seats the last time they’d stopped for food, so Lorna could direct Shuri towards the Mutant Underground. They turned down a road that looked semi abandoned, wire metal fences looming on either side. The car stopped suddenly.

“What’s going on?” Wanda asked.

“We can’t go down there,” Lorna said. “We can’t, we just can’t”

Wanda leant forward in her seat to look at both Lorna and Shuri. Both girls appeared to be frozen in their seats, Lorna was beginning to breath quickly and Shuri was moments away from turning the car around. “This isn’t right,” Wanda muttered to herself. She brought her hand up to Lorna’s forehead and used her powers to look insider her mind. Almost immediately, she flinched backwards when she saw how scared her sister was. She flicked her hands a few more times and Shuri and Lorna snapped out of their state.

“What happened?” Shuri asked when she noticed the red lights pouring from Wanda’s hands to her and Lorna.

“Something, or someone, got inside your heads and made you both very scared,” she explained. “We must be getting close”

Shuri nodded and carried on driving down the road. They turned around a corner to see the bank ahead of them. It was a large building with steps leading up to the double doors, giant columns stretching from the floor all the way up to the roof two floors above. A small group of three men had gathered by the gate, however, as they got closer Wanda realised that two of them were only about the same age as Lorna and Shuri.

“That’s them,” they heard the eldest man say to the other two as he began to head back to the bank. “The ones that got through my fear projection”

“I’ll handle this,” Lorna said as she got out of the car. She approached the two remaining boys, her hands in the air in a form of casual surrender. “Gentlemen, I assure you, I can explain”

“Who the hell are you and how did you get past the fear projection?” one of the boys demanded. He had short black hair and wore a long sleeved blue t-shirt with a pair of dark jeans. “What are you doing here?”

“Marcos, easy,” the other boy warned. His hair was longer than Marcos’ and pulled back in a messy half-bun, the lose locks brushing the edge of his leather jacket. “Sorry about him. Who are you? Do you and your friends need help?”

Before she could reply, a cry came from the doors of the bank. “Lorna!” screeched a girl as she came running down the steps. As she barrelled into Lorna, arms wrapping around the girl, Wanda couldn’t help but notice the resemblance between the girl and Cathy.

“That must be Sonya,” she said to Shuri. She moved to get out of the car as another girl came running after Sonya. Her eyes were unnaturally bright green and a purple mark over her right eye, the same colour as he hair. Clarice, Wanda presumed.

“ _This_ is Lorna?” Marcos asked. “The one you haven’t stopped talking about for the last three months?”

Lorna smirked at Marcos as she managed to detangle herself from Sonya. “Aw, you’ve heard of me, I’m honoured,” she said as she flipped her hair slightly over her shoulder.

Shuri stepped out of the car and stood next to Wanda. “I think your sister is flirting with him,” she whispered in Wanda’s ear.

“Holy shit,” Clarice exclaimed. “Wanda Maximoff, you found her”

“What’s going on? How do you guys know the Scarlet Witch?” the second boy asked as he cautiously looked over at Wanda.

“She’s my half-sister,” Lorna explained. “Did they not mention that? And if they didn’t, I’m presuming our Dad never came up in conversation”

“No, it didn’t,” he said. He looked over at Sonya and Clarice for an explanation.

“John, we can explain,” Clarice started.

“Can I propose that we take this meeting inside,” Shuri suggested. “Because, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m getting really cold”

“Who’s that?” Marcos asked.

“Royalty,” Lorna replied. “So, you’d better show her some respect”

“Oh yeah, because you always do,” Shuri argued.

“Guys stop,” Wanda yelled. She glared at Shuri and Lorna. “Can we please go five minutes without you two arguing?”

“No,” both Shuri and Lorna answered at the same time. Wanda sighed.

“So, shall we go to the inside?” John offered.

“Let’s,” Wanda agreed before the others could continue bickering. She grabbed the bags from the back of the car and lobbed them at Shuri and Lorna.

John grinned at the group before leading them inside. They weaved their way through the corridors of the bank, past full bunks that lined the wide balcony that took up most of the ground floor, a huge gap and staircase leading down to a vault. They went through a door on the other side a headed down a corridor of what used to be offices but had clearly been converted into bedrooms. John pushed open the door to a large room at the back of the building. There were four beds in use in the room, the sheets messily pulled over, as well as two other spare beds and a sofa on the other side of the room.

“This is our room,” Sonya welcomed. “I’m pretty sure they just shoved us all back here to get the teenagers out of the way”

“You think she’s joking, but we arrived here months after John and Marcos and just got put in here with them,” Clarice said. “You’ll probably end up in here with us as well”

“So, who’s in charge here anyway?” Shuri asked as she dumped her bag on one of the beds.

“Various people from the X-Men,” John replied.

“Oh, those guys again,” Shuri sighed. “I seriously still don’t know who they are”

“They’re students of Professor Xavier at his school for mutants,” Marcos explained. “A lot of the adults stay onto help, either by teaching or helping with the Mutant Underground. We help get a lot of the kids who aren’t travelling with anyone to the school, so they’ve got somewhere safe to go to school, because a lot of mutants their age can’t”

“You say ‘kids’ like you aren’t sixteen,” Wanda joked.

Lorna whipped round and stared at her sister. “And you say that like you aren’t only four years older than me _and_ you’ve been an international fugitive for the last two years”

“We normally have Storm here,” Sonya said, interrupting the sisters before they could start fighting. “And sometimes we get the others come visit and help out as well. We’ve had Cyclops, Jean Grey and even Wolverine once. He was scary”

“His daughter was cool though,” Clarice added. “So was her clone sister. That whole family’s kinda weird”

“Do you think we should try and explain to them all the crazy we heard from your kids?,” Lorna asked giving Wanda a mischievous look.

“I’m sorry, you have kids?”  Sonya said. “Since when?”

“Since the future,” Lorna explained in a way that Wanda thought was probably too enthusiastic. “Wanda, can we tell them, please?” Okay, definitely too enthusiastic.

Wanda looked round at the group before sighing. “Fine, we can. But you’re in charge of it Lorna, you seem to get more out of it anyway”

Lorna grinned at her before she threw herself down on the sofa, rubbing her hands together in a mildly menacing style. “Gather ye round children to hear the crazy story that is what our family will become by the time Wanda’s twin sons travel back from the future accompanied by the daughter of our brother, who is currently dead”

“What?” Marcos said in a deadpan voice. “That’s not real”

Wanda did her best to supress yet another sigh, although being around her sister made that very hard. She sat with Shuri as she listened to her sister talk about what they’d heard, occasionally interjecting when she forgot something.

***

“Are you guys awake in there?” came a voice from the door early the next morning. Lorna bolted upright in shock at the sudden sound, accidently knocking Wanda out of the double bed that they’d shared. Wanda squawked in shock as she landed on the floor with a load thud. The door opened, and the owner of the voice came into the room.  “Is everything alright in here?”

“S’okay Shatter,” Sonya sleepily slurred. “We’re all good”

“Who are they?” Shatter asked, pointing at Shuri, Wanda and Lorna.

“That’s the girl we were telling you about, Lorna,” Sonya introduced, still half asleep. “And her sister Wanda Maximoff, you know, from the Avengers”

“Also, their friend Shuri, the princess of Wakanda,” Clarice added.

“…okay,” Shatter said. “I just came to let you know Storm’s back”. He closed the door as he left, and Sonya immediately jumped to her feet, grabbing clothes from the half open wardrobe as she ran towards the bathroom.

“Get up!” she ordered. “Get dressed, all of you, now! We need to see Storm right now”

“Why the rush?” Shuri asked as she sat up, her normally immaculately styled hair flopped all over her face.

“If anyone knows where Magneto is, it’ll be Professor Xavier, and our only way to him is through the school,” Sonya explained. “And to find out how to get there, we need Storm’s help”

“You don’t know where the school is?” Wanda asked. “I thought you said that you helped other kids get there?”

“We arranged for them to get there, we never actually went there ourselves,” Clarice said. “Looks like we’re going now”

Lorna looked over at her friend. “You’re coming too?”

“Of course, we are,” Sonya promised as she came out of the bathroom, now fully dressed, Marcos heading in behind her. “Wherever Lorna goes, Clarice and Sonya go. Except for a Mutant Detention Centre”

“Did you just talk about us in third person?” Clarice asked.

“Did you just make a joke about her being locked up?” asked Wanda.

“That was kinda funny,” Lorna said with a smile. She noticed the look Wanda was giving her. “What? Here at the Mutant Underground we encourage dark humour as a way of coping with trauma”

“No, we don’t,” John argued. “And we’re going with you as well, Marcos and I”

“I’m sorry, we’re doing what now?” Marcos asked for the bathroom. He shoved the door open, still with his shirt halfway on. “Hey, stop staring!”

Wanda followed his gaze to the other side of the room to where Lorna was staring at Marcos, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open slightly. “Lorna,” Wanda hissed at her sister.

Lorna blinked a few times as she snapped out of it. “So, you two are coming, that’s great. It’ll be fun to travel in a group”

“Like one of those road trip movies,” Sonya suggested.

“I’m so glad I stole the SUV from my brother,” Shuri said. “Otherwise we’d have to put people in the boot”

“What happened to the go-go-go?” Clarice asked. In the time they’d been talking she’d managed to get into the bathroom and change. John had gone into the now empty bathroom. “I thought you wanted to go talk to Storm”

“We’re just waiting for everyone to get changed,” Sonya reasoned. “I forgot to take into account the fact we only have the bathroom for getting changed”

Eventually, they were all changed and heading back through the corridors to the main room of the bank. A woman with dark skin and shocking white hair was stood in the middle of a group of people, giving instructions and handing out boxes of supplies.

“Holy shit,” Shuri muttered. “That’s Ororo Munroe”

“Wait, you know her?” John asked. “How?”

“She’s my brother’s ex-wife,” she explained. “Oh, this is going to be fun”. Shuri broke away from the rest of the group, jogging ahead to greet Ororo. The woman looked up just as the girl got close to her, a grin instantly spreading across her face when she recognised Shuri and she opened her arms to greet her in a warm hug.

“Hey you,” Ororo grinned. “Do I want to know what you’re doing here?”

“It’s a long story,” Shuri said. “I’m helping my friends find their Dad”

Ororo looked over and managed to not look too shocked when she spotted Wanda. The others around her weren’t as good.

“I feel like an animal in a zoo right now,” Lorna muttered. Wanda smirked slightly at the fact she was speaking in Sokovian, obviously not wanting everyone else to listen in on the conversation. “I wish they’d just stop looking at me like that”

“Have you only just realised that?” Wanda asked, sticking with the Sokovian. “They’ve been staring at us like that since we arrived”

“Hey, Wanda and Lorna right?” Ororo asked as she came over with Shuri. The two girls nodded. “Good to finally meet you. How’s Shuri been behaving for you guys?”

“Oh, she’s lovely,” Wanda promised.

“She’s the worst,” Lorna said at the same time. Wanda glared at her and gave her a sharp jab in the ribs. “I’m kidding, she’s great”

“Do I want to know why an Avenger has turned up at the Mutant Underground?” Ororo asked. She watched the looks the group were exchanging. “My office will probably be best for talking privately”

The group filed down the stairs and into a small office tucked off to one side, quickly shutting the door behind them.

“I would like to start this off by saying that we only heard about all of this yesterday, so don’t blame us,” Marcos said.

“And we didn’t know _all_ of it until yesterday either,” Sonya added.

“You guys are worrying me,” Ororo said, looking to them for some form of explanation.

“Long story short: Wanda’s kids time travelled here from the future to stop everything going to hell,” Lorna began to explain. Ororo raised one eyebrow in amusement but didn’t stop the girl. “They’re going down one route, trying to find this other time travelling girl; if they stop her from getting killed, then things shouldn’t go as bad for mutants as they did. But one of the things that they told us happened is that our sister Anya gets killed because I’m trying to find Dad. But that doesn’t happen for several more years, so if I find him before that, she’ll be okay”

Ororo stared at Lorna in thought for a moment, digesting what she’d said. “Even after all this time with the X-Men and the Mutant Underground, Erik’s family still finds ways to surprise me”

“You know him?” Wanda asked.

“I only met him a couple of times,” she explained. “But I do know someone who can find him”

“Professor X?” John suggested hopefully.

“Yes,” she replied. “You’ll need to get to Xavier’s, which I’m guessing you already knew”. She paused for a moment to roll her eyes at the excited grins Marcos, John, Sonya and Clarice’s faces. “I can send you there, but I should warn you guys, there are not exactly the biggest Avengers fans. Wanda may be a mutant, but as far as some of them are concerned, she’s an Avenger first and foremost”

“But she literally fought against the Accords, that would’ve had huge impacts on mutant society,” Lorna argued.

“To be fair, it was just more of a punch up in a 7-11 parking lot,” Shuri pointed out.

“It was at an airport, but go off,” Lorna muttered.

“You really weren’t lying about her,” Ororo commented. “In the nicest way possible”

“No, don’t be nice to them,” Wanda argued. “They’ve been like this since we left the safehouse. They haven’t stopped”

“I know,” Ororo said with a sigh. “She was just as bad as her brother”

“So, you used to be married, and to a member of royalty at that,” Sonya grinned. “You never told us about that. Why?”

“This isn’t helping us get to the school,” Marcos snapped, sending small glares to the new girls.

“I can send you guys there, but I have no way of guaranteeing that the professor will know where to find Erik, he’s not exactly known for keeping in best contact with the X-Men. Even when he was still in Chicago, he barely spoke to the Mutant Underground, almost everything we heard about him came from Lorna,” Ororo said. “She’s a very good source of information”

“I’m a great little spy, I could’ve gone to the S.H.I.E.L.D. academy, except they have too many rules,” Lorna proudly declared. “That and I probably would’ve ended up as a specimen in their labs the second they found out I was a mutant; the government really does its best to keep us covered up. But seriously, if anybody is going to know where we can find my Dad, it’s the professor. Not that he’s going to be particularly happy to see me”

“Oh, so _you’re_ the girl that called him Shiny Head in front of Wolverine,” Ororo grinned. “Of course that was Erik’s kid. Logan still calls him that”

“When can we leave?” Marcos asked, steering the conversation back to the school. “The sooner we can find Magneto, the better it’ll be for everyone. Especially Anya Eisenhardt”

“I can send you in the morning,” Ororo replied. Marcos seemed to perk up at the idea of being able to head off soon. “But until then we’ve got a mother that needs to be reunited with her kids at a smaller station a couple of hours away. They got split up when cornered by Sentinel Services. If you have a car that they haven’t seen before, that would be the safest way for her to get there”

“Sure,” Shuri said. “Me and Wanda can take her and anyone else that needs to get there. And any supplies as well”

“What about me?” Lorna asked.

“I thought you’d want to stay here with Sonya and Clarice,” she said. “You know, catch on what’s being going on since you got arrested”

Lorna nodded and Ororo led the other two girls from the office, explaining as she went where to take the mother and the supplies.

“We should probably go back to our room,” Clarice suggested. “I know from experience that if you hang around in the office for too long, people start to assume that you’re in charge and know what you’re doing. I don’t”

Sonya, Clarice and John started to head off, but Lorna grabbed Marcos by the wrist.

“Hey,” she said. “Thanks for what you did, remembering about my sister. I know you haven’t exactly been the biggest fan of me or my sister, or Shuri, but you know, it’s nice to know that you were actually paying attention to my family’s weird life story”

“That’s not something people usually forget, the whole sister dying in the future, which was told to you by your niece and nephews who are currently older than you because time travel,” Marcos replied with a small smile.

“Hey, Luna’s younger than me,” Lorna argued.

“Okay,” Marcos surrendered.

Lorna grinned at him. “See you around glow stick,” she said as she walked out of the room towards where Sonya and Clarice.

“Were you flirting with him?” Sonya asked as she looped one arm through Lorna’s.

Lorna shrugged slightly and giggled lightly as the three girls walked back to their room.

Back in the office, John awkwardly approached Marcos from where he’d been stood on the other side of the corridor with Sonya and Clarice. Marcos barely moved as he stepped closer, his eyes still staring after Lorna, even though she and the other girls had gone around the corner and out of sight already.

“Damn, you’ve got it bad,” he joked as he looked at his mildly shocked friend.

“Shut up,” Marcos muttered as he snapped out of his trance, his face turning a bright shade.

“Excuse me but do either of you boys know how I can call my family?” asked a very sweet elderly lady with skin a brilliant pink and hair that seemed to glow.

“This is why we don’t hang around in the office,” John muttered to Marcos before he turned to the lady. “Sorry, I don’t, but we can find you someone who will”

***

“Your sister and Marcos seemed to be getting very close,” Shuri commented.

“Please don’t remind me,” Wanda sighed.

Lorna was sat directly behind Wanda, with Marcos next to her and Sonya next to him. Clarice and John were in the back row. It was so early in the morning that the sky was still pitch black outside.

“But didn’t your time travelling kids mention that Lorna had a boyfriend from the Mutant Underground?” Shuri asked, doing her best to sound innocent, but the grin on her face said otherwise.

“Did you ever think that you would end up saying something that stupid?” Wanda shot back.

“Hey!” Shuri protested. “Don’t go changing the subject”

Wanda grinned at her friend before staring out the window and letting the rest of the world slip away as she drifted off to sleep.

***

“Wanda, help me”

The voice filled the darkness that surrounded her, echoing all around. Wanda took a step back in shock, her back pressing against a wall. The scene suddenly began to change, switching to a bright day in an unfamiliar city. It took her a few moments to realise that the light wasn’t coming from the sky, but rather fires. All around her, violent flames raged on tops of buildings as sky scrapers began to collapse.

“Wanda, help me get these people inside,” the voice said again.

She looked over to find the source of the voice and gasped in shock. It was man around the same age as her parents, yet his face looked a mirror of Pietro’s, save for his eyes, which were the same as hers; the hair on his head a shock of white against the fiery background.

He had his arm around a man that was bleeding badly, helping him stand up. On the other side of the man stood a woman she recognised as Okoye, one of the Dora Milaje from Wakanda. Behind them, she could see Anya running up some steps to join them, a flash of green hair, clearly Lorna, still noticeable through the smoke that consumed everything around her.

“Wanda, look out!” Lorna yelled, her eyes flickering upwards.

Wanda followed her gaze upwards to see a building collapsing down on the group. She through her hands up, hoping to use her powers to deflect it. Nothing happened. No red light appeared from her hands. The building just continued to fall.

“WANDA!”

***

“WANDA!” Shuri yelled for a fourth time. “Dude seriously, wake up. We’re here”

Wanda looked outside the window to see that they were parked in the driveway of a mansion. A tall woman with long red hair was stood leaning against the door. She waved lightly at them as they began to get out of the car. Sonya grinned widely at her.

“Jean!” she exclaimed in excitement. She hurriedly approached the woman and the two women hugged tightly.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get your bag,” Clarice muttered as the others unpacked the boot of the car.

Sonya rolled her eyes and snatched her bag off Clarice. Jean looked over the group of teens, her eyes coming to rest on Wanda and Lorna.

“Erik is going to be so happy to see you two,” she said.

Lorna’s head snapped over. “You know where he is?” she asked hopefully.

“No, but the professor is doing his best to find him,” Jean promised. “If you come inside, he’s happy to talk to you, but please try and be quiet. The kids are asleep”

The group moved quietly through the school, Jean leading the way to a study. She knocked on the door, not waiting for a response before opening the door. A man with a bald head and a grey suit was sat behind a desk. He didn’t look up when the door opened.

“Who is it Jean, someone else from the Mutant Underground?” he asked.

“Something like that,” Jean said.

He finally looked up and his eyes widened in shock when he spotted the small gaggle of teenagers huddled behind Jean. “My god,” he muttered. He came out from behind the desk to reveal that he was in a wheelchair, the rims of the wheels the same ‘X’ design as on the gates to the mansion. “You two must be Lorna and Wanda, Erik’s kids. I can definitely see the resemblance between you and him, Lorna. And Wanda, you are the spitting image of your mother, or at least from what I’ve seen in photographs”

Lorna looked down at his chair. “And I can see that you’re really committed to the X-Men aesthetic, if those wheels are anything to go by”

“X-thetic,” Sonya muttered under her breath, earning her a semi-discrete high five behind Jean’s back.

“You didn’t know who we were before we got here?” Wanda asked. “Also, I’m sorry about my sister”

“No worry, she is even more like Erik than it first seems,” the Professor said. “And I didn’t think it would be polite to look in your minds and see who you were”

“Do you know where my Dad is?” Lorna asked. “I haven’t seen him in almost a year and we were hoping you could tell us where he was”

“Can’t say I have seen him in a few months, but I’ve been trying to reach him; Erik is not the sort of person that I want to leave unaccompanied in the world. He’s likely to do something stupid,” the Professor sighed. “You kids are welcome to stay here in the meantime though, unless you want to go back to the Mutant Underground. You can attend classes as well if you want”

The group shared a look before they turned back at the Professor.

“We’ll stay here,” Lorna confirmed. “But if you put Shuri in a science class, she will outsmart the teachers”

“I’m sure Hank will look forward to having someone else that will actually understand what the hell is talking about,” he grinned back at the group. “And I look forward to seeing it as well”

“I’ll show them to some rooms,” Jean offered. “Goodnight”. She lead the group upstairs towards three empty rooms. “This is all the space we have free at the moment, so you’ll have to bunk. I’ll see you in the morning”

***

Jean’s loud knocking on the door woke the group the next morning. Wanda lifted her head sleepily from her pillow, blearily blinking sleep from her eyes as Jean pushed the door open.

“You kids need to get up soon,” she instructed. “Or you’re going to miss breakfast. Some of these kid’s mutations mean they have really high metabolisms. They will eat everything if you don’t hurry up and get down there quick”

She left the room, leaving Wanda, Shuri and Lorna to hurriedly change. They met the others in the corridor and they dashed down the stairs towards the hall. They managed to get some food and find a table in the corner of the room before too many other people got there.

“We got here just in time,” Shuri commented. She gestured to the queue of people arriving with her head as she continued to eat. “That’ll be the rush Jean was talking about”

“They’re glaring at us,” Sonya commented. “Look at them, they keep looking over here”

 “Maybe we stole their table,” Clarice joked. John snickered slightly, earning a small blush from Clarice.

“It’s because of me,” Wanda said. “I mean, look at me, I’m not exactly hard to miss or forget. I’ve killed people remember”

“Me too,” Lorna reminded. “I had kill at least ten people to get out of the place they were holding me last year. Probably twenty. Actually, it was closer to ten, plus injuries”

“They definitely know who you are,” said another girl as she placed her tray down in front of the spare seat at the table. “Can I sit here?”

“Sure,” John said.

“Thanks. I’m Kitty Pryde, by the way,” she introduced as she sat down. She turned to look at Wanda and Lorna. “But they definitely know who you are. They obviously recognised who Wanda is and there’s a girl in my chemistry class that can sense other mutants’ powers. She’d have recognised that you have the same powers as Magneto and would’ve figured it out from that”

“And how did you figure that out?” Lorna asked defensively.

“The girl from my chemistry class told me,” she explained. “When did you guys arrive here?”

“We got here from the Mutant Underground last night,” Clarice said.

“The Underground? Sweet, they helped tons of the kids here,” Kitty grinned. “Why’d they send you?”

“We came to talk to the Professor,” Lorna explained. “Me and Wanda are trying to find our Dad. But he hadn’t seen Dad in months”

“I’m sorry,” Kitty apologised. She turned to Wanda. “So, any funny stories you can tell me about the Avengers?”

***

_Dear Mom and Dad,_

_I’m sorry about leaving. And about hanging up the phone on you when we last spoke. And I’m sorry that was over two months ago. I’m sorry about a lot of things. I’m also sorry that I can’t give you a return address for this letter. I’ve been keeping up with the news about the Avengers and I know things are going better with the government. I can’t risk the address for where I am getting into their hands, it’s too dangerous for all the other people living here._

_As for where I am, Shuri, Lorna and I left the Mutant Underground almost as soon as we got there. For the last few weeks, we’ve been at the Xavier Institute for mutants with Lorna’s friends from the Mutant Underground. It’s been great here, I’ve finally been able to actually go back to school, ten years later. We’ve all really settled in here and made a few new friends (this is really beginning to sound like a clichéd letter to send home). A girl started talking to us on our first day and we’ve ended up becoming really good friends. I would tell you more, but I can’t even say her name without risking Sentinel Services going after her or her family._

_Shuri’s doing great here, she’s practically taken over teaching the science lessons and is having the time of her life correcting the textbooks. Lorna’s doing good as well. She was very happy to reunite with her friends from the Mutant Underground and to meet their friends from the Underground as well, although I swear her entire relationship with Marcos consists entirely of them snapping at each other all day._

_As for the other people here, they’re okay I guess. Some people are nice, most just ignore us. But others seem to hate us. They can’t get past the fact we’re related to Magneto. There are people here that hate the Avengers and take it out on me. They don’t actually try and do anything, I think they’re too scared to cross me in case I lash out with my powers, but it’s the little things everyday that let you know that you’re not welcome here, not really._

_If you go back to the compound, I’ll come back as well. We haven’t found my biological father yet, but I’ll come back to you guys even if we haven’t found him by then. I know it sounds like I’m giving up on tracking him down, and I don’t want to, but I miss you. I hope I’ll see you again soon._

_All my love,_

_Wanda_

***

“I posted the letter for your sister,” Marcos said as he walked into her room.

In the few months since they’d arrived at Xavier’s, the small cluster of rooms they’d been put in had come to look more and more lived in, cluttered piles of stuff everywhere being the tell-tale sign that teenagers were living there. Lorna patted the green sheets on her bed, inviting Marcos over to come sit with her. He sat down and looked over at the pinboard she had on the wall next to her bed.

“This looks like you’re stalking him,” Marcos joked. The pinboard was covered in any evidence that Lorna could find about where her Dad could be, all connected with red string.

“That’s kinda the point,” Lorna argued. She looked over to Marcos when she heard him snicker.

“You’re doing it again, you’re staring at me”

“I’m sorry that I like to appreciate the nicer things in life,” Lorna snapped. She froze before flushing bright red and dropping her head to hold it in her hands. “Shit, I just said that out loud, didn’t I?”

“It’s not that bad,” he reassured. “I was kinda staring too”

The two met each other’s’ eyes and immediately burst out laughing as they realised what they’d both just said.

“Oh you just dug yourself a hole there,” Lorna laughed.

“Well, it’ll be nice to join you there,” he grinned. “But, I’m sorry if I seemed like I was being a jerk. You just want to find your Dad and keep your family together”. He ducked his head down at the end of the sentence.

“Something tells me that you wouldn’t do the same for them. And they wouldn’t do the same for you,” Lorna said. She tried to edge closer and place her hand over his, but he flinched away. “I’m sorry for prying, it was too much”

“Don’t be sorry,” Marcos reassured. “My family threw me out when they found out I was a mutant; my dad didn’t want a freak like me in the house. I was on my own, on the streets for months before the Mutant Underground found me. I guess that’s why I’ve been like this since we met. I’ve seen so many other kids go through the exact same thing as me, that I couldn’t understand your side, a mutant from a family that actually likes each other”

“Well, I wouldn’t say that,” Lorna joked. “We’re, mostly, all mutants and we don’t hate each other, but that’s about it. Tell you what, I’ll make you a deal; you stop acting all emotionally repressed and rude and I’ll stop snapping at you all the time”

Marcos laughed at the bluntness in her statement. “Truce?” he offered, holding his hand out to shake.

Lorna took his hand, but instead of shaking, she used his hand to pull him closer to her. She tilted her head upwards to catch his lips with her own. After a few moments, she pulled away. “Truce”

***

Kitty found Wanda sat on the roof of the building. She was sat by the edge of the stone balcony, her back leant against as she stared down at a photo she held clutched tightly in her hands. The only light came from the moon, the stars and the glowing red lights on Wanda’s hands.

“Hey, you okay,” Kitty called out loudly, startling Wanda slightly.

“I’m fine,” she promised. “I just needed some air”

“Mind if I join you?” Kitty asked. Wanda patted the ground next to her and the younger girl quickly walked over and sat down. She looked over at the photo Wanda held in her hands. “Who are they?”

“My parents and my younger siblings,” Wanda replied.

“I thought your mom was dead and your dad was missing,” Kitty said. “Also, isn’t that Hawkeye?”

“They’re my unofficially adopted family,” Wanda explained. “It’s complicated”

“So, Hawkeye has a secret family,” Kitty said. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. Your secret’s safe with me”

“Thanks,” Wanda muttered.

“You miss them,” Kitty stated.

“Yeah,” Wanda replied. “But for now, I think is the right place for me to be”

“Cool,” Kitty said casually. And with that, the two girls stopped talking and just sat looking up at the stars in a comfortable silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> About not updating for so long, I'm going to get this off my chest and say it right now: my bad.
> 
> Seriously, I am sorry for taking so long to update, but I have got a lot planned out for what happens next, so hopefully, that will get written quicker.
> 
> Also, I don't know if anyone saw, but in All New Wolverine #33, my username came true!!


	23. Weddding Bells

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While on their honeymoon, Tony and Pepper run into some very familiar faces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To anyone that wanted more S.H.I.E.L.D. characters, here you go

“Do you Anthony Edward Stark take Virginia Potts to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

“I do”

“And do you Virginia Potts take Anthony Edward Stark to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

“I do”

“Then by the power invested in me by the state of New York, I now pronounce you husband and wife,” Rhodey announced gleefully. “You may kiss the bride”

Tony grinned widely at Pepper as he leant in to kiss her. Behind them, the small crowd, only Happy, Vision, May, Peter, MJ and Pepper’s mom, Georgia, cheered loudly and threw confetti over the couple.

They pulled apart and grinned at their friends, hands still clasped together in between them. Peter waved lightly at them from behind the camera he was holding in front of his face. He pressed a button a got another picture of the happy couple.

Georgia came over to congratulate the couple. She dragged her daughter over to the side to pull her into a hug. Tony took the opportunity to head over to Peter.

“You get many good photos?” he asked.

“I think so,” Peter replied. He switched to the camera’s gallery and the two flicked through the photos Peter had managed to get of the ceremony. He paused when he got to one of the moment Tony and Pepper kissed.

“I like that one,” Tony said.

“Which one?” Pepper asked as she approached the pair. She stood on the other side of Peter and looked down at the camera. Her hand flew up to mouth as she gasped when she saw the photo. “Oh Peter, that picture’s wonderful. Thanks.” She looped her arm around the kid and pulled him into a quick hug”

“Hey kid, you might want to go back to your plus one, May’s grilling her,” Tony suggested, not even bothering to keep the teasing tone out of his voice.

Peter blushed furiously as he scuttled away back to where May was talking to MJ.

Pepper lightly hit Tony’s arm. “Stop picking on the kid,” she scolded.

“But it’s fun,” he whined. He stopped when he saw the look his wife was giving him. “Okay, fine, I’ll stop”

“How long until you two are leaving?” Rhodey asked as he wheeled himself over to where Tony and Pepper were stood.

“Wait, what about your reception?” Georgia asked. “Please tell me that you’re having a reception”

“We are,” Pepper reassured. “But we’re going to wait until the other Avengers are back”

“And speaking of, a little birdie named Karen told me that you’ve been Skyping Wanda recently, Peter,” Tony said. “Care to elaborate”

“She just kinda showed up at my house with Lorna and Shuri,” Peter argued in his defence. He looked to MJ and May for support. May quickly nodded in agreement while MJ just shrugged.

“So drinks and then off to Tahiti for the honeymoon?” Rhodey asked, quickly changing the subject before anyone asked anymore questions about the not-so-fugitive-anymore Avengers.

“Drink and then Tahiti via Iowa,” Tony confirmed.

“What’s in Iowa?” Rhodey started to ask. “Actually, you know what, I don’t think I want to know”

***

“Hello? Anyone home?” Tony asked as he and Pepper walked through the front door of the safe house.

“What are you two doing here?” Natasha asked. Tony and Pepper looked over to see Natasha sat with Laura, Bobbi and another woman they didn’t recognise. Her hands were holding a book of baby names that was balancing on top of her now very large bump.

“Are we missing something?” Pepper asked as she looked up the group.

“We’re bitching about the joys of being pregnant,” Natasha explained. “Are you two wearing wedding rings?”

“Tina, you can’t tell anyone,” Laura instructed the other woman, presumably Tina. “Congratulations you guys”

“Tina Smith?” Tony asked sceptically. Tina nodded. “Yeah, we’ve heard of you”

“If it’s because I’m known as the town gossip, don’t worry, even I have my limits,” she promised. “I won’t tell. I haven’t told anyone else about the Avengers being here either and I have enough gossip stored that I was able to persuade the others that saw Hawkeye here a few weeks ago not to say”

“I like her,” Pepper said.

“Are you two stopping for long?” Laura asked.

“No, we’re just stopping in to say hi and then we’re off on our honeymoon,” Pepper said.

“That’s long enough for drinks,” Laura decided. She stood and went to the kitchen.

Pepper went and sat next to Natasha. “You and Bruce still haven’t decided on a name yet then?”

“We’ve narrowed it down to a few, but I keep coming back and looking at this book for some reason,” Natasha groaned. “The others keep saying that it’s pregnancy brain that’s making me do that, amongst other things. I cried at a soap commercial yesterday Pepper. A soap commercial”

“What names were you thinking of?” Pepper asked as she tried not to laugh at Natasha’s last sentence.

“For a boy, either Alexei or Dimitri and for a girl, either Alyona or Oksana,” Natasha said. “This kid’s going to be growing up in America, so we wanted them to have a Russian name, although, if we have a girl, her middle name’s going to be Jennifer, after Bruce’s cousin”

“Aw, that’s really sweet,” cooed Pepper.

“Thanks,” Natasha replied. She dropped her voice lower, thankful that Tony was chatting with Laura in the kitchen. “If it’s a boy, the middle name will be either Anthony or Clinton, but don’t let either of them know, I don’t want it going to their heads”

“Definitely wouldn’t want that,” Pepper laughed.

Tony walked back into the room carrying a drink each for him and Pepper. “Do I want to know what you two are laughing about?”

The two women shot each other a look before looking back at Tony. “No,” they said in unison.

“See, that just makes me more worried,” Tony said as he passed Pepper her drink.

“We were just talking baby names,” Natasha explained, carefully omitting the part about the possible middle names. “Where are you two going on honeymoon?”

“Tahiti,” Pepper said.

“That’s sounds great,” Bobbi said with a slight smirk. “I hear it’s a magical place”

“That’s some kind of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2.0 joke that we don’t get, isn’t it?” Tony asked.

“Long story,” Bobbi replied as a means of explanation. “Maybe you’ll know it someday”

***

“Can we just agree that is the most cryptic thing Bobbi has ever said to us?” Tony said to Pepper. The couple were wandering through the streets of Papeete.

“She’s an ex spy, she talks like that a lot,” Pepper argued. “Clint and Nat are just as bad”

Tony hummed in agreement, before freezing in place. He stepped to the side and pulled Pepper over with him so that they were both hidden slightly by a shop sign.

“What are you doing?” Pepper asked.

“Look down there, at her,” Tony ordered. Pepper followed his line of sight to a Chinese woman stood outside a shop, looking at the display out front.

“What about her?” Pepper said.

“It was the man I saw her with,” Tony replied. “Keep watching”

Pepper turned her gaze back to the woman. As she looked closer, she could see that the woman’s hand was clasped with another. After a few moments of watching, the man stepped back out where Pepper could see him. He made some comment that made the woman roll her eyes, but she reached up to quickly kiss him anyway.

“Coulson?”

***

“They’re both former spies, they totally know we’re following them,” Pepper said with a sigh. She and Tony had been having this argument for the last ten minutes and she was beginning to get annoyed.

“How do you she was a spy?” Tony asked.

“Where else would he have met her? She’s not the cellist,” Pepper reasoned.

The two cautiously approached the door to the house they saw Coulson and the woman go into. They were about ten metres away when the door was suddenly thrown open. The woman was stood in the doorway and was glaring at the pair.

“Are you two coming in?” she asked coolly.

Pepper and Tony walked through the door and saw Coulson in the kitchen putting bags of food away. "Okay, maybe you were right, they were following us”

The woman rolled her eyes. “Oh, so now you believe me,” she sighed. “Can’t believe I married you”

“You’re married?” Tony asked. “Since when?”

“We got married two months ago,” the woman explained. “What about you two? I see the rings but I don’t remember seeing that in the news”  
“Mel, play nice,” Coulson playfully ordered as he came out of the kitchen. “What are you doing here?”

“We’re on our honeymoon, we got married a couple of days ago,” Tony explained. “We had no idea you were here until we spotted you in the street. And did you call her Mel? As in Melinda May?”

“How do you know who I am?” May demanded.

“Bobbi and Hunter mentioned you when they were telling us about S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Pepper said. “They also accidently told everyone that you were alive again apparently, I wasn’t there for that bit”

May visibly flinched when Pepper mentioned Coulson being brought back. Coulson wrapped one arm around her back and rubbed her arm reassuringly.

“What’s wrong?” Tony asked.

“Do you two want to sit down?” Coulson asked.

Pepper and Tony shot each other worried looks before following Coulson and May over to the two sofas on either side of a small coffee table, each couple taking one side.

“What happened?” Pepper asked.

“In order to stop someone a year ago, I had to make a deal with the devil,” Coulson explained. “In exchange for help, they burned through the chemical that had brought me back. Without it, the site where Loki stabbed me can no longer heal itself and I’m dying of the same injury that killed me last time”

There was a brief pause before Tony spoke up. “Okay, we can fix that. I’ll get Rhodey to come get us all in a quinjet and we can get you to Helen Cho’s lab ASAP. She can use her regeneration cradle to fix the tissue around the wound. You’ll be fine in a matter of days”

“No,” Coulson said.

“Phil, please,” May said softly.

“I said no,” Coulson snapped. “I’ve already had one unnatural life extension, I don’t want another. Nothing you can do is going to change my mind. Thanks for the offer, but I’ve made up my mind"

“Phil, this isn’t like back at the lighthouse,” May said. “We don’t have to worry about Hale or Talbot anymore. We don’t have to try and split our time between stopping them and saving you”

“I thought you were on my side with this,” Coulson argued. “You said that you supported my decision and that it was my choice to make”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t want my husband to die!” May yelled. “Phil, please. After all this time it took for us to stop being stupid and be honest with each other, you’re really just ready to roll over and let that end after only a few months”

“I need to make a phone call,” Tony said, excusing himself from the room. He opened up a door at the back of the house and stepped out into a small patio out back, flowers in pots filling the space in a vibrant rainbow of colour. After a few moments later, the person on the other end of the phone picked up. “Hey Clint, I need to throw the safe house rules out the window”

“Why?” Clint asked. “Tony, we have those rules for a reason, they’re to keep everyone safe”

“Well, this is to keep someone safe as well,” Tony argued. “It’s Coulson. Me and Pepper ran into him in Tahiti. He’s dying of the same injury that killed him last time and he won’t let us save him. I just thought that if he knew about everyone, then maybe he’d let us help him”

“Give me a minute,” Clint said.

Tony was put on hold before he could say anything else. He rolled his eyes as he heard the Barton’s funny but questionable choice of hold music start to play. “Star spangled man with a plan? Give me a break Barton.” He stood there for a couple of minutes, becoming increasingly aware of the people watching him through the window.

“Okay,” Clint said as he took Tony off hold. “I’ve spoke to the others and tell Coulson whatever he needs to know to let us help him. Tell him about Laura and the kids. Bobbi and Hunter have said to say about them and the girls and Bruce and Nat said it’s okay to say about them and their baby. She also said that Pepper knows all the possible names, but any potential middle names for a boy are not to be mentioned, whatever that means. Hell, Anya even said to drag her and Lorna into this if you need to. But just make sure he knows what Cooper’s middle name is and what he means to all of us, okay?”

“I will,” Tony promised. He went back into the house and sat next to Pepper again.

“Who were talking to?” Coulson asked.

“Clint Barton,” Tony explained. “I knew one way that I could talk some sense into you, but as much as I want you to survive, it isn’t my place to just tell you what you need to know without asking first”

“What do I need to know?” Coulson asked.

Tony pulled a picture up on his phone and passed it to Coulson. “That’s Skye Jemma and Isabelle May Hunter-Morse, Bobbi and Hunter’s twin girls”

“Are you trying to blackmail me with the my friends’ kids?” Coulson asked, trying to hide the smile on his face as he looked at the photo. “Because of you are, it’ going to take more than that”

“Natasha’s pregnant,” Tony said. He suppressed a smirk when he saw the shocked looks on their faces. “She and Bruce are due their kid in August. I don’t know what names they’re thinking of, but apparently Pepper does, although she’s not allowed to mention what middle names they’re thinking of for a boy”

Pepper snorted lightly in amusement. “Oksana or Alyona for a girl and Dimitri or Alexei for a boy. If they have a girl, the middle name is going to be Jennifer after Bruce’s cousin, but I have been banned from saying any more about middle names”

“You guys stopping at three?” May asked.

“Wanda Maximoff has been pretty much adopted by Clint at this point, although you probably don’t want to know the drama involving her birth family. Turns out she has multiple sisters,” Tony added. “But it wasn’t just Clint that pretty much adopted Wanda”

“Who else?” Coulson asked.

“He’s married,” Pepper said. “Her name is Laura and she is an absolute saint. Fury helped hide her when Clint joined S.H.I.E.L.D. and kept her off all the files. He didn’t want her in any danger because enemies he made through S.H.IE.L.D.”

“If he didn’t want her to be in any danger, why did he even join S.H.I.E.L.D. in the first place?” Coulson asked.

“Because he needed the protection for someone else,” May answered before Pepper and Tony could. “Think about Phil, whenever Barton was in the field, he was always careful and protective of any kids he came across, always made sure they were safe before he completed the mission. Those were the actions of someone who had his own kids back home, someone who’d want people to show the same respect to his kids”

“Cooper’s going to be eleven in a few weeks, Lila was eight at the beginning of the year and Nate just turned three last month,” Tony said. “And before you say anything else, Clint and Laura wanted you to know that Cooper’s middle name is Philip, after you. They thought that was something you needed to know”

“Phil, please let them help you,” May begged. “Listen to what they’re saying; you have all these people, some of which have never met you, ready to tell you all their secrets, to risk their safety just to let you know how much they care about you. And think of the team”

“S.H.I.E.L.D. will carry on without us,” Coulson argued. “The team will be fine without me”

“Will they though? Seriously, just think about them,” May continued. “Jemma just lost her husband. When they find Fitz, he’s not going to know that we fixed the timeline or what the other version of him did. God knows what happened to Deke. Yo-Yo watched herself die and Mack lost his daughter for a second time. And Daisy... she still needs us”

“Can I at least have a couple of days to think about this?” Coulson asked.

“Yes, but please actually think about it,” Tony answered. “Don’t just make up your mind now and string us along for no good reason"

“I won’t,” Coulson promised. “Now, you two go enjoy the rest of your honeymoon. We can find you if we need to”

***

May came to Tony and Pepper’s hotel a few nights later. The woman was doing her best to keep a calm look on her face, but couldn’t hide the tears that were threatening to spill.

“What happened?” Tony asked. “Is it Coulson? Is he okay? Please tell me that we’re not too late”

May shook her head. “He’s still alive, but he started getting some sharp pains around the site of the wound. He told me to come get you. I came straight here”

“FRIDAY, tell Rhodey to send a quinjet with life support to this location immediately and have Dr Cho get her lab ready. Tell her we’ve got someone who needs the use of the regeneration cradle. And urgently”

***

It took a few hours for the quinjet to arrive, which was thankfully faster than a normal jet would be able to go at. This meant that everyone had time to pack all the things from the hotel and the house. Well, everyone except Coulson; there was no chance in hell that May was going to let Coulson do anything that him at risk. Especially now that he’d agreed to let Tony and Helen Cho help him.

“Hey,” Tony said to the couple. “About everything I said to you about the Bartons and all the various kids, can you not tell Rhodey when he gets here? We normally have this rule with the farmhouse that people aren’t meant to know about any of that until they get there. You two are an exception, Rhodey is not”

“We’re spies, we keep secrets for a living. We got this,” May promised.

***

The two couples were stood on the beach when the quinjet touched down on the sand. The door quickly opened to reveal Rhodey at the top of the ramp. He wheeled himself down, stopping just before he reached the bottom.

“Is this thing sand proof?” he yelled to Tony.

Tony pressed a few buttons on his smart watch and small thrusters appeared at the sides of the wheelchairs, similar to the ones on the iron man suit. “It is now,” he yelled.

Rhodey maintained annoyed eye contact as he piloted the chair over the sand, an impressive feat, even for him. “Of course it can do that,” he said with a sigh when he reached Tony. His eyes skimmed over the rest of the group and he did a double take when he saw Coulson. “I thought you were dead”

“He will be if we don’t get him back to Helen immediately,” Tony replied. He, May and Pepper grabbed the bags and the group hurried back to the quinjet.

As the walked up the ramp, May pushed past the others. She threw her bags to the side and sat down in the pilot’s chair. She threw a quick glance over shoulder to confirm that everyone had gotten in before closing the ramp and starting the take off sequence. Within a couple of minutes, they were airborne. “Computer thinks we’ll be back at the compound in six hour and forty-two minutes. Are Dr Cho and her team ready?”

“They called me to let me know the lab at the compound was set up ready,” Rhodey answered. “I told them to go to sleep and I’d call them when we re-enter American airspace. What’s all this for anyway? And how is Coulson alive?”

“I was brought back to life,” Coulson explained. “But the thing that was keeping me alive is gone and I’m dying of the same injury that killed me last time. I was going to let it happen, but these guys were able to talk me out of it”

“So, the life support, that’s for you,” Rhodey said.

“Honestly, I think all that’s a little overkill,” Coulson confessed.

“No it’s not,” May, Pepper and Tony all immediately chimed in.

Coulson rolled his eyes at his wife and friends while all Rhodey could do was laugh at the group.

***

“This is fascinating,” Helen said in awe as she watched the regeneration cradle fix Coulson’s chest. “I’ve seen it work on fresh wounds and tissue that has only been recently been damaged. But this, repairing and replacing cells that have essentially been dead for six years, this is a whole new level that this technology can go to”

“Helen, it once created life,” Tony argued. “Or are you forgetting Vision?”

‘That was with the help of the mind stone,” Helen argued. “This is without the assistance of a item of great cosmic power. This is all my own work”

“Not to toot your own horn, but toot toot,” Coulson joked from where he was lying in the cradle.

May rolled her eyes at her husband, but didn’t stop stroking his hair. “You’re a dork, you know that right?’

“I’m not going to try to deny it,” he grinned. He looked over at Tony. “Hey, sorry I ruined your honeymoon”

“No problem,” Tony reassured. “Neither me nor Pepper care if it means saving your life. We both missed you, we all did. And speaking of, the two of you have an invitation to go stay with Bobbi and Hunter for as long as you want. I’m heading back out that way to head up the big return of the Avengers from that end of things, I can give you guys a ride out there if you want”

“That sounds great,” Coulson said.

***

“May!” Bobbi yelled from the porch of the farmhouse. Although May and Coulson were going to be staying with Hunter-Morse family, they’d come to the Barton house first, eager to meet everyone else.

“Bobbi!” May yelled back. The younger women rushed forward to meet her, the two hugging tightly.

“I’m here too,” Coulson said as he got out of the car.

Bobbi detached herself from May to go over and give Coulson an equally big hug. “I missed you both so much”

“We missed you too,” he replied. “Now, I believe that you and Hunter have some kids that you’d like us to meet”

“They’re inside,” Bobbi said. “Everyone is looking forward to seeing you”

The group went into the house and we’re greeted by the usual chaos that came from having more superheroes than you could feasibly fit in a living room, the loud group spilling over to kitchen as usual.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” Natasha said. She was sat on the smaller of the tow sofa’s her feet propped up on Bruce’s lap next to her, hands resting atop her bump.

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just call me that,” Tony said as he walked past her and Bruce to go talk to Laura and Clint about the move to the compound.

“Look at you,” Coulson exclaimed. He reached over to hug the former agent. “Bet you’re glad that I sent you to get him now”

Natasha snorted. “If you had told me six years ago that’s what that recruitment would come to, I would never have believed you. But yes, I am glad that you sent me”

May heard someone walk up behind her as she watched Coulson and Natasha interact. She turned around to see a familiar looking young woman stood holding out a mug of what she assumed was tea. “Wanda Maximoff I presume”

“No, that’s my sister,” she said with a sad smile. “I’m Anya Eisenhardt”

“Sorry for the mix up,” May apologised.

“It’s okay,” Anya reassured. “Apparently we look so alike that everyone here gets us mixed up sometimes. Even our sister Lorna. But, Lorna and Wanda aren’t here at the moment, so you don’t have to worry about that”

Every spy instinct in May screamed at her to ask why, knowing there was more than the story than just the two sisters not being there. But she was able to force it down; this wasn’t a place for spies, it was for family. “I hope I get to meet them”

“May, over here,” Coulson called from the other side of the room.

May pulled herself away from her conversation with Anya to find her husband. She almost laughed at the sight. He was awkwardly holding a toddler with Hunter’s hair and eyes and what was so obviously Bobbi’s nose. At his feet sat an identical twin and an eight year old girl on some beanbags.

“May I?” she asked Hunter, who was sat on a nearby chair. He nodded and she bent down to pick up the twin girl. “Hey there, what’s your name?”

“That’s Issy you’ve got there May,” Hunter answered. “Coulson’s got Skye”

A short woman with long brown hair walked out of the kitchen just as May passed Issy over to her father. She quickly made her way across the room to greet the newcomers. “Hi, I’m Laura. It’s great to finally meet you”

She greeted both Coulson and May with quick hugs, despite having only just met them. When she pulled away, she looked behind her to a boy, about ten years old, who was hanging back by the door. Looking at him, May quickly realised that he was Cooper, Clint and Laura’s son, the resemblance between him and his father striking. She beckoned and he awkwardly followed his mom over.

“Hi,” he said, sticking his hands in jeans pockets when he realised he didn’t know what to do with them.

“Hey,” Coulson greeted. “Tony and Pepper told us all about you and your siblings, although I do have to say that you won middle name wise”

“Nuh-uh, I did,” the girl on the bean bags insisted. “I got my middle name from one of the Young Avengers, so I win”

“Lila Katherine Barton, there is no need to get into an argument right now,” Laura scolded.

Coulson turned to Clint who was stood nearby. “Katherine as in Kate Bishop? She’s one of the Young Avengers?” Clint nodded. “That actually makes sense”

“So, what’s been going on at S.H.I.E.L.D. the last few years?” Natasha asked.

“Where do we start?” May asked. “The future? AIDA and the Framework? Ghost Rider?”

“I was thinking Maveth or everything that went down with Daisy’s parents,” Coulson said.

“We’ve heard all that from those two already,” Tony said, pointing to Bobbi and Hunter. “The Framework however, that sounds interesting”

“And actually Hunter,” May added. “Apparently you’ve seen Fitz since. What happened with that?”

Bobbi and Hunter immediately started laughing when that was brought up. When they stopped , Hunter started to explain what happened. “So basically, Fitz sent me messages that he needed help through the fan letters section of a football fan magazine, real football that you play with your feet, and I had to go break him out of a high security facility and then break him back in again using ferrets as a distraction”

Everyone stared at him in confusion.

“Right, so...”

***

“This all feels so surreal,” May commented as she sat down on the edge of her and Coulson’s bed. The two were in their new room at Bobbi and Hunter’s house where they would be staying until they found their own place in town.

“What, superheroes and former spies living relatively normal lives?” Coulson asked.

“That and the amount of kids they’ve managed to hide from us,” May laughed. Her face turned serious for a moment. “Thank you for letting them help you. You were really starting to get worse before we left Tahiti; if you hadn’t let Tony and Helen help you, I’m not sure I’d still have you anymore”

Coulson walked over and sat next to his wife. He looped his arm around her and she leant into his side, resting her head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry I put you through all that. To make it up to you, I promise that I won’t tell everyone else how much of a snuggler you are, wouldn’t want to ruin your badass vibe”

May snorted with laughter. “You’d better”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you may have noticed, this is almost the end of Life On The Farm, however, it is not the end of the series. The Next Generation will continue as is, but as the Avengers are leaving the farm, I thought the next chapter would be a good place to wrap up this particular story and continue under a new title.
> 
> Natasha and Bruce may have narrowed the name down to a few choices, but I don't know which one I'm going to go with yet, so let me know which one was your favourite xx


	24. Hello

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Huge changes face the Avengers as they leave the farm.

“Have you kids packed everything you need?” Laura yelled up into the house.

“That goes to Avengers and co as well,” Tony added.

It was six hours before the Avengers were meant to be back at the Compound and barely any boxes of belongings coming with from the safe house had made it as far as the quinjet. Laura, the children, Natasha and Anya were going to be joining them at the Compound a week later. Until then, Laura was taking the children to visit her parents and Anya and Natasha were staying at the farmhouse.

“Why can’t I just go with them now?” Natasha asked for the fourth time that morning. She was sat on her and Bruce’s bed, watching him pack the last of his clothes. Anya was sat in a chair opposite the bed, making sure Natasha didn’t move.

“Because none of us trust Secretary Ross as far as we can throw him, which admittedly would be quite far, and there is no way in hell I’m allowing a pregnant woman to put herself in unnecessary danger, especially this close to your due date,” Anya answered, again, for the fourth time that morning.

“We’ll back for you in two days,” Bruce promised. “By then, we’ll’ have hopefully established that Ross isn’t up to anything and have everything set up at the compound ready for you to have the baby there. And besides, Anya said she’d stay with you here”

“Oh joy, I get to stay with the doctor that’s keeping me on bed rest,” Natasha said sarcastically. “Why can’t you stay?”

“Because I’m the one that Ross is the most interested in,” Bruce replied. “If I’m there, hopefully, it’ll distract him from the fact we’re down a god, a former assassin and a highly powerful teen”

“Wanda’s twenty now,” Natasha said. “She’s not the baby of the team anymore.” She paused for a moment before looking over at Bruce. “I’ve already had this conversation with you, haven’t I?”

“Yes,” Bruce answered honestly. “You’re actually the one who convinced me to go with the others, I was going to stay with you”

“Stupid me doing things that make sense and then forgetting that I did it,” Natasha grumbled under her breath, crossing her arms over her bump.

Anya exchanged an amused look with Bruce. “Look, we all agreed this is the safest option for both you and your baby. And like he said, we’ll be back there with them in a week”

“Admit it, you’d rather go now,” Natasha said to Anya. “Would you really rather be stuck on babysitting a heavily pregnant woman duty or out there looking for your stupid sisters”

“I don’t need to look for them,” Anya countered. “You saw that letter Wanda sent. They’re planning on coming back to the Compound when we do. I’ll see them soon enough. And yell at them for leaving suddenly in the night soon enough”

“I think you and Clint are splitting the responsibility of yelling at them,” Bruce added. “You can take a sister each”

“I thought you guys weren’t mad about them leaving?” Hope said. The others looked over to where she’d appeared at the door. 

“We understand why they left, what we’re mad about is going in the middle of the night without telling us,” Anya explained. “Also, T’Challa’s kinda annoyed with Shuri for taking his car, but he doesn’t want to confront her about it because apparently, she has some embarrassing leverage over him” 

“There are still no boxes in the quinjet people,” Tony yelled. “Come on people, get a move on” 

Bruce lifted up a couple of boxes. “I’m going to take these down before Tony has a stroke. See you in a minute.” He leant over and quickly kissed Natasha before leaving the room. 

“I know we’re not leaving yet, but I have my stuff and Lorna and Wanda’s things as well,” Anya sighed. “I’d better go do that now.” She left the room as well, leaving Hope and Natasha alone. 

“Hey, you said that I could have...” Hope said before trailing off. 

Natasha reached under the bed and pulled out a small plastic white bag and tossed it at Hope. “Knock yourself out” 

***

“Is that everything?” Tony asked as the last of the boxes was stacked into the back of the quinjet. 

Steve secured the boxes in with a large strap and stood back to make sure they’d got everything. “Everything that we’re taking now. All that’s left is the people” 

“Yeah, well we’re apparently doing emotional goodbyes, even though it’ll only be a few days before we pick up the stragglers,” Tony complained. 

“And you spend how much of your time on video call with Pepper?” Steve asked. “And F.R.I.D.A.Y. still updates you on what Peter’s been up to” 

Tony didn’t respond, just glared at Steve as they walked across the field to the others. 

“I’ll call you when we get to my parents’ house,” Laura promised. “And you’ll call me when you get there, okay?”

“I will,” Clint said. “I’ll start unpacking the kids’ stuff so that the move isn’t as weird for them”

“I don’t think that you can make moving from a farm to the Avengers Compound not weird,” Laura smiled. “But I am pretty sure Lila’s given you instructions on where to put all her stuff. She said it’s in the box with her cuddly toys”

“Which one?” Clint asked sarcastically.

“Don’t worry Dad,” Lila reassured. “You’ll know it when you see it”

“That isn’t cryptic at all,” Clint said. “Have you been getting lessons from your Auntie Bobbi?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Lila replied as she went off to go say goodbye to her other aunts and uncles.

“You sure you’ll be okay here by yourself?” Clint asked.

“I’m not sure I’m allowed to leave,” Natasha sighed.

“I know that,” Clint said. “That’s why I was talking to Anya. Seriously, are you sure you’re okay looking after her by yourself? She’s a bit of a handful this one”

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that,” Natasha snapped. She turned back to Bruce, who did his best to hide that he was smirking. “I saw that”

“I know you did,” he replied. He lowered his voice as he carried on talking. “I’m really gonna miss you”

“I’ll miss you too, but I’ll see you in a few days,” she whispered back. She clasped his hands in hers and brought them up to rest on her bump. “And not long after that, we’ll have our daughter too”

“Still think we’re having a girl then?” Bruce teased. 

“I’m telling you, I just know,” Natasha said. “Mother’s intuition or whatever Laura said” 

“Okay, I believe you,” Bruce replied. “I’ll see you in a few days and our daughter in two weeks” 

“You still think it’s a boy, don’t you?” Natasha asked. 

Bruce shrugged before leaning down to kiss her. “I love you. See you soon” 

“I love you too,” Natasha said. 

The couple finally pulled apart and Natasha lightly waved goodbye to the two leaving groups. Laura and the kids got in the car and drove away, Lila turning in her seat to wave until they disappeared into the trees. Once the car was out of sight, the rest of the group climbed into the quinjet, Bruce throwing one last lingering look over his shoulder at Natasha and Anya before the ramp closed. 

The two women watched as the quinjet took off and flew out of sight. 

“Okay,” Anya said. “Now that’s all over, you’re going back inside. The weather said we’re meant to be getting a storm and I am not having you outside during that” 

“Anya, I’m pregnant, not dying,” Natasha asked. “Why are you practically wrapping me in cotton wool?” 

“Because this shouldn’t be possible,” Anya explained. “You had your womb removed and then a whole new one just grew while a hole in your side was being fixed. And by all logic, it shouldn’t have been possible for Bruce to be able to have kids. And we don’t know about any side effects from possible radiation. The fact you’re pregnant defies all scientific logic. You and Bruce are so lucky to have this baby and I don’t want to risk anything going wrong for you two” 

“I guess I never thought about it like that,” Natasha said. “Thank you, for everything you’ve done. But I do have one question” 

Anya sighed. “What is it?” 

“Is sofa-rest an acceptable substitute for bed rest?” Natasha asked. “Because there’s a TV downstairs” 

Anya rolled her eyes at Natasha’s request, but allowed her anyway, leaving Natasha downstairs by herself as she went to carry on packing. A few minutes later when the rain started pouring down, Anya did her best not to look smug. 

***

Things were relatively quiet for about half an hour, which seemed to be the standard amount of time that they could go at the safe house before something happened. The first thing that happened was all the electrics went off.  

Anya came barrelling downstairs to check on Natasha as the house suddenly went dark. 

“Anya, calm down,” Natasha said. “It’s just a power cut. That’s all” 

“Check your phone,” Anya ordered as she pulled hers out of her pocket. “I don’t have any signal, what about you?” 

Natasha checked her phone and saw she also had no signal. “I got nothing as well” 

“Great,” Anya groaned. “We are stuck by ourselves, on a farm, in the middle of a storm, with no power and one of us is heavily pregnant. And we don’t even have Bobbi and Hunter to turn to, because they’ve gone on holiday with Coulson and May. This can’t get any worse” 

That was when the second thing happened. Natasha felt a sharp stabbing pain in her side and did her best not to visibly wince, but Anya caught it. 

“Oh, please tell me that wasn’t what I think it was,” she muttered. 

Natasha shook her head before a second pain came. She quickly nodded her head instead. 

“Shit,” Anya cursed. “Shit! Shit! Shit!” 

“You think?” Natasha half laughed half cried. 

“We’re stuck by ourselves, on a farm, in the middle of a storm, with no power or phone signal, no backup and you’re going into labour,” Anya said. “This is just fantastic” 

“What do we do?” Natasha asked. 

Anya leapt to her feet. “We get you upstairs,” she said. “This’ll be easier on an actual bed. We’ll time your contractions and how far apart they are and I’ll do my best to remember what do right now. I was an ER doctor, I’ve never delivered a baby before. I have no experience in midwifery” 

“That’s very reassuring,” Natasha joked. “What about Bruce? He’s not here, but he can’t miss this, but we can’t call the others” 

“I’ll keep trying to get signal every few minutes,” Anya promised. She did her best to calm down Natasha, who was rather understandably starting to get worked up over the whole situation. “But until then, what powers the boiler in this house?” 

“Gas,” Natasha answered. 

“Oh, that’s one thing that’s going right at least. Now, come on you, upstairs”

***

That was how the next two and a half hours went; Natasha timing her contractions and the time between them and Anya desperately trying to get signal. She was balanced on a chair in the middle of the attic her hand holding her phone as high as she could get without climbing on the roof. Although, if she didn’t get any signal soon, she could easily see herself doing that. 

At long last, one single bar appeared at the top of the screen. As quickly as she could without losing her height, she dialled Bruce’s number. It took only a few rings before he picked up. 

“Hey, Anya, you two okay?” he asked. 

“Bruce, you need to get back here right now,” she all but yelled. “Natasha’s- SHIT!” 

She glared at her phone as she realised that the call had disconnected as she lost the signal again. All she could hope was Bruce was coming back. 

***

“We’re five minutes out,” Clint said as he piloted the quinjet. In the distance, he could see the shape of the Compound breaking through the trees. Next to him, a screen burst to life and Rhodey’s face appeared next to him. Steve and Tony walked up to the front so that they could talk to Rhodey. 

“Clint, Steve. Long time no see,” he greeted a lot lighter than Clint thought their teammate would, given the last two years. “I see you’re almost here and I just thought I should warn you that Ross is in a particularly bad mood today, so please don’t do anything to annoy him” 

“Guys, we have to go back,” Bruce said as he rushed up from the back of the quinjet.  

Tony immediately ended the call with Rhodey. “What’s wrong?” he asked. 

“Anya just called,” Bruce began to explain. “She didn’t get chance to say much before the call dropped for some reason. All she said was that I needed to get back there and then she started to say something but she got cut off” 

“F.R.I.D.A.Y., call the safe house,” Tony ordered. 

“Sorry boss,” the AI replied. “I am currently unable to do that. A brief search shows that a storm has knocked out the power in the area, including cell phone service towers” 

“We need to go back,” Bruce insisted. 

“Already on it,” Clint said. He steered the quinjet back around leaving the Compound behind them. 

***

“What the hell?” Rhodey exclaimed as Tony ended the call. Pepper looked up from where she was sat with Peter, who had come to the Compound to welcome Tony back after having not seen him in a month. 

“What’s wrong?” she asked. 

“Bruce just came running up to the front of the quinjet and told them they needed to go back to their safe house,” he explained. “Then Tony hung up on me”. He looked down at the tablet he had in his lap. “And now they’ve turned around. I’ve got to go talk to Ross. He is going to hate me for this.” He closed the tablet down and wheeled himself out of the room. 

As soon as he was gone, Pepper pulled out her phone and called Tony. He picked up almost immediately. 

“Hey honey, I was just about to call you,” Tony casually, but Pepper knew that was something was going on. 

“Tony, what’s happening?” she asked. “And bear in mind that I’ve got the kid with me and you’re on speaker” 

“Anya called,” Tony explained with a sigh. “Something’s happened with Nat, but we don’t know what because she lost signal because of a power outage” 

“You think she’s gone into labour?” Pepper asked. “Poor Bruce, he must be terrified right now. How long until you get there?” 

“It took us almost three hours to get here, but we were being discrete,” Clint thinks that if we really push it, the quinjet can get us back there in just over two” 

“Good luck,” Pepper said. “And call us if you get any news or, you know, phone signal” 

“I will,” Tony promised. “I love you” 

“I love you too,” Pepper replied. She hung up the phone and saw Peter looking at her. “What?”  

“I thought you told him to behave because I was here,” he said. “But you’re just as bad” 

“I thought a month without seeing him would mean you’d lose some of his childish influence,” Pepper sighed. “But it appears I was wrong” 

***

Two hours and five minutes later and Anya was beginning to get worried. She knew that realistically Natasha would have to start pushing soon, but Bruce wasn’t here yet. Although she wanted him to be here when his child was born, she couldn’t risk anything happening to Natasha or the baby. 

“Hey Nat,” she said cautiously. “I don’t mean to worry you, but...” 

“I’m going to have to start pushing soon,” Natasha replied. “I’m not stupid, I know that waiting isn’t an option”

“Hold that thought,” Anya instructed as she moved from the bed. She wiped furiously at the window and the two watched as the faint shape of a quinjet broke through the rain and landed on the grass. Anya ran from the window and out the door. She yelled over her shoulder to Natasha as she went. “Don’t you dare move!”

Natasha sighed and threw her head back against the stack of pillows that Anya had propped her up against as another contraction hit her, biting down on her lip and screwing her eyes shut in pain.

“Natasha!” a voice yelled from the bottom of the house.

Natasha opened her mouth to respond, but before she could, Bruce burst into the room. His hair was dripping with rainwater, as was the coat that he was pulling off and discarding on the floor as he stumbled through the door. He darted over to her side and sat down next to her. The pair shifted slightly so that he was sat behind her with her leaning back against him.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered in her ear. “I should’ve never left you”

“You didn’t know this would happen,” she replied. “Neither of us could”

“I know, but when has anything ever gone to plan with any of us?” he asked.

Natasha grinned slightly, before throwing her head back against his shoulder as she groaned in pain.

“Contraction?” Bruce asked.

“You think,” Natasha snapped slightly, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

“Hey, I’m back,” Anya announced as she raced back into the room. Everyone else seemed to pile up behind her, stopping at the door and peering through into the room.

Clint was at the front of the group. “You guys go,” he ordered. “Scott, make use of that master’s in electrical engineering and try and fix the backup generator. It should’ve, but something must’ve gone wrong. Hope, you help him. Steve, Sam, Tony, I don’t care what you do, just don’t be here”

“The quinjet,” Natasha said. “All the baby’s stuff is all in the boxes loaded there. We need clothes, diapers, bottles… argh.” She was cut off from her listing by another contraction. She grabbed Bruce’s hand in her own and squeezed tight. Had it not been for the rest of the circumstances surrounding the situation, Sam would’ve laughed at the look on Bruce’s face when he realised just how strong his fiancée was.

“Baby things, got it,” Sam said. He turned around and pulled Steve and Tony out the room with him. “We got it”

Clint snorted as he watched them run off in mild terror. “Bunch of cowards,” he sighed. “Can’t handle being around a woman in labour”

“Please, as if you weren’t like this when Laura had Cooper,” Natasha teased. “And weren’t that better when she had Lila”

“Yes, but you have to admit, I was perfectly fine by the time Nate came around,” Clint added.

“Sure you were,” Natasha muttered under her breath. She smirked slightly when she saw the look that Clint was giving her. “What, you would’ve been just as bad if Wanda wasn’t there literally using her powers to stop you from freaking out”

“God, she would be useful right about now,” Bruce said.

“Agreed,” Natasha replied. Bruce shot her a bemused look. “Not for you, for me; did you see how she helped Lorna when she got stabbed. Completely took the pain away”

“The Black Widow admitting to pain, these really are the darkest of days,” Clint said dramatically.

“No, this is childbirth, and this is completely normal,” Anya scolded. she turned to look at Clint. “Are you going to be useful or are you just going to sit there? And before you answer, you don’t have a choice, you’re going to help”

“Okay, what do you need me to do?” Clint asked.

“Go to my car and find my medical bag. It’s not much, but it’s all I’ve got to work with, so it’ll have to do,” she said as she held out a set of car keys. Clint nodded and hurried out of the room, snatching the keys as he went. “He’s actually pretty good in an emergency after all”

“He’s been in this situation before, he gets it,” Natasha explained. “Well, not this situation exactly, but Bruce’s at least.” She paused for a moment, screwing her eyes shut and clenching Bruce’s hand again. “How much longer is this going to last?”

“Reminder, I’m not a midwife,” Anya said. “But from what I do know, I’d say about another hour. But a word of warning, this is going to be the hard part. It’ll be worth it though, you’ll have your daughter”

“And another one has joined Nat on Team It’s A Girl,” Clint quipped as he walked back through the door. He handed Anya her bag and took a seat opposite the bed. “How’d she get you?”

“Agree with the mom,” Anya replied. “That’s the one thing I do remember”

“You remember one thing, that’s reassuring,” Natasha sighed.

“It’s just a saying,” Anya defended. “I remember more than one thing”

Natasha opened her mouth to snap back at her, but instead, let out a small scream. She tightly gripped Bruce’s hand in one of her own, the other hitting against the bed.

“Contraction?” Anya asked. Natasha nodded. “You need to start pushing. I know this part sucks, and this hurts but this is the shortest part. It’ll all be over soon”

“I thought you had no experience with midwifery,” Clint said.

“I’ve been pirating copies of textbooks for midwifery courses,” she explained. “Knowing our luck, there was always the chance that this would happen. Better safe than sorry”

“Are you sure you don’t have mutant powers?” Clint asked. “Like seeing the future”

“Is now really the time?” Natasha cried. She leant back against Bruce, her chest heaving with heavy breaths. He pressed a kiss to her forehead as she gripped tightly on her hand again.

“Push!” Anya ordered before spinning round to glare at Clint. “And she’s right, now is not the time?”

“Clint, stop being an ass,” Natasha said weakly, taking a moment to try and catch her breath between contractions.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “How are you doing?”

“I’ll be happy when this is all over,” she replied.

“Which shouldn’t be too much longer,” Anya added. She noticed Natasha’s fists curl up again, gripping at the bedsheets and Bruce’s hands. “Now, push”

***

Scott’s head snapped up when he heard Natasha’s yell from upstairs. He couldn’t help but wince as he thought of the amount of pain she was going through at that moment.

“Scott, you need to focus,” Hope said. “I don’t like it either, but the only way we’re going to be any help her out is if we fix this generator. The one that they keep in the basement. By the way, did you know that they had a basement?”

“I did not,” Scott replied. “But then again, I tend to be out of the loop of a lot of things at this place”

“How long do you think this will take?” Hope asked.

“At least another hour,” Scott answered. “I don’t know what happened to this, but we’ll be lucky if we get this to work at all”

Another yell came from upstairs.

“This sucks,” Hope said.

“I’m just glad it’s not me,” Scott replied. Hope hummed in agreement before the two got back to working on fixing the generator.

***

“You found anything yet?” Sam asked.

“Not yet,” Steve replied. The two of them and Tony had spent half an hour digging around the boxes in the quinjet. “I thought you’d arranged a system for all the boxes. Everything was labelled with who it belonged to and what was in it”

“Yes, but everything for the kids, including Baby Banner, was given a different label so that nobody would know what was going on until they arrived a week later,” Sam explained. “The only problem is, I can’t remember what label I put on all the kids’ boxes”

“That’s helpful,” Steve muttered. He lowered the box he’d just been searching through and opened up another. He grinned when he saw what he’d found inside. “I got baby clothes”

Sam and Tony raced over from the other side of the quinjet to help Steve dig through the box. The three quickly filled the bag they’d brought from the house with the stuff from the list of items they’d been told to fetch. Sam zipped up the bag and threw it over his shoulder.

“Wait!” Tony yelled, stopping the other two in their tracks. “Natasha needs stuff as well”

“Okay, where are her boxes?” Steve asked. The group turned back to look at the mess left in the quinjet, boxes left open and their contents were strewn all over the floor.

“I have no idea”

***

“I think I can see the head,” Anya said excitedly. She tapped Natasha’s knee, making sure that she was listening. “Keep going, you’re almost there”

“Oh thank god,” Natasha sighed. She grabbed Bruce’s hand again and grasped down tightly as she felt a stronger contraction than any before rip through her body, letting out a scream as she did.

“You’re doing great,” Anya reassured. “Almost there, just one more push”

Natasha groaned and pushed as hard as she could. She collapsed back against Bruce’s chest as it ended. A small cry broke through the air and Natasha let out a slight gasp. She sat herself up straighter, using Bruce as support, in order to try and see Anya and the baby. She watched as Clint handed Anya a clean towel he’d grabbed from the cupboard. Anya loosely wrapped the baby in the towel and lifted her into her arms.

“It’s a girl,” Anya announced as she placed the baby girl in Natasha’s arms.

“Hey, looks like you were right,” Clint teased from across the room.

Natasha just laughed lightly at her friend’s teasing as she stared down at her daughter. She brought one hand up and brushed her finger lightly against her cheek. She turned back to look at Bruce and saw him staring down at their daughter with a look of awe on his face.

“Are you crying?” she asked.

Bruce grinned at her, finally tearing his gaze away from their daughter. “So are you”

“I just pushed a baby out of my body, I’m allowed to,” she argued. “A baby. Our baby girl. Bruce, we have a daughter, we’re parents. And I was right; a girl”

“I hate to break this up, but I need to clamp and cut the umbilical cord,” Anya interrupted. She came and hovered over the family and quickly applied a small clamp to the cord.

“Where did you even get that?” Clint asked.

“I’ve had Tony bring a few things over here just in case this ever happened,” she explained. “Not everything that you’d get at a hospital, but enough.” She applied a second clamp further down and carefully cut the cord between the cord between the two clamps. “Just the placenta to go”

Natasha groaned. “God, I thought this would be over by now”

Anya smiled lightly at her friend. “Almost but not quite”

Anya was right, it was almost over. Within ten minutes it was over. Anya bagged everything up in medical waste bags.

“Get rid of these,” she ordered Clint. “Everyone’s okay and I need a shower, so let’s give the new parents some time alone with the baby”

She left the room and Clint followed her. He pressed a kiss to Natasha’s head as he left, taking the medical waste bag with him as he went.

“So, which name are we going with?” Bruce asked. “We never decided, Oksana or Alyona?”

“Oksana,” Natasha said. “If that’s okay with you”

“Oksana Jennifer Banner,” he replied. “Sounds perfect”

“Yeah, it does,” she said. She pressed a kiss to Oksana’s head, tears welling up in her eyes as she looked at her daughter. “She’s perfect”

There was a small knock at the door. Bruce called out for whoever it was to come in and Steve stuck his head through the door. His hair was still flecked with drops of rain and he had a bag hung over his shoulder. His eyes came to rest on Oksana.

“Hey you three,” he said. He gently placed the bag next to the bed and took a step closer to the family. “She’s so cute. And so is her name; I heard you talking as I was coming up the stairs. Congratulations by the way.” He began to back out of the room.

“Can you tell everyone else that we decided on a name? I’m too tired for that,” Natasha asked. Steve nodded and continued out of the room. Natasha looked around the room. “Hey, Steve, where’s the bassinet? Please tell me you brought the bassinet out from the quinjet”

“I’ll go get it now,” Steve promised. He walked quickly out of the room. Bruce and Natasha listened to the sound of his footsteps walking down the stairs, and then moments later, they heard him yell at Sam and Tony that they needed to go back out to the quinjet.

“I think that went well,” Bruce muttered to Natasha. She snorted, and he pressed a kiss to her hair.

“Do you want to hold her?” Natasha asked.

“I would love to,” he replied. The pair shifted so they were sat next to each other and Natasha carefully passed Oksana over to Bruce. Once she was safely in his arms, she groaned and slumped back against the headboard. “Are you okay?”

“No, I’m exhausted and I don’t think I’ve been in this much pain since Budapest,” Natasha answered.

“Do I ever want to know what happened there?” Bruce asked.

“Eventually,” she said. “What happened there was one of the most insane things that I have ever lived through. I feel like explaining it will just ruin the moment”

“Maybe later then,” Bruce accepted.

At that moment, the lights flickered back to life, illuminating the dim room. Bruce and Natasha heard a small yelp come from the bathroom next to them.

“Anya are you okay?” Natasha yelled.

“I’m fine,” she shouted back. “The lights  just came back on suddenly and I wasn’t expecting it”

“At least she’s okay,” Bruce said. Natasha didn’t respond. “Nat are you okay?”

He looked down and saw that Natasha had fallen asleep against his shoulder, small snores coming from her. It seemed that the exhaustion of giving birth and the stress of the day had finally caught up with her. Bruce shifted Oksana in his arms slightly, so he could reach over to grab a blanket and gently drape it over his fiancée’s sleeping figure. In her sleep she nestled closer to him, burying her face into his shoulder. He glanced back over at Oksana and saw that she’d also fallen asleep. He smiled at the two and pressed a kiss to their heads, before leaning back against the headrest, content to just sit there in silence with his two girls.

***

Laura slammed the car door closed and hurried the kids out of the car. “Come on, inside, quickly”

She’d received a call from Clint just before she’d gone to bed the night before explaining what had happened at the farm that day. She and the kids had left first thing the next morning, much to the annoyance of her parents, and the amusement of her sister and Ian. After driving non-stop for a few hours (something she didn’t think was possible with three children) they’d arrived back home.

“Can we go see Auntie Nat?” Lila asked.

“Not yet, sweetie, she’s tired. I’ll go check on her and you guys need to stay downstairs,” Laura said.

Lila sighed but nodded. She perked up when she saw the rest of the Avengers. “Dad!” she yelled.

“Lila,” Laura scolded. “You were told to be quiet.” Lila shrugged and peeled away from her dad to go say hi to everyone else. Laura leant over and quickly kissed her husband. “Hey, you. Guess going back to the Compound a couple of weeks before Natasha was due was a bad idea after all”

“You don’t say,” Clint laughed.

“How is she?” Laura asked.

“She’s doing fine. I’ll distract the kids while you go say hi,” he promised.

Laura smiled at him, before hurrying out of the room. She ditched her bag in her room before heading back down the hall to Bruce and Natasha’s room. she knocked lightly on the door before entering.

“Back so soon?” Natasha teasingly asked. She was sat in bed, propped up by pillows. A bassinet was stood next to the bed, the small baby snoring slightly in her sleep.

“Like I was going to stay away after all this,” Laura said. She perched on the end of the bed, shooting a quick smile to Bruce who was sat in the chair in the corner of the room. “She’s so sweet. And so far, a lot less fuss than Lila was when she was a newborn”

“No, she’s just as loud as Lila was when she’s hungry,” Natasha laughed. She stopped and stared down at her daughter. “I just can’t believe we’re lucky enough to have her. After everything that happened to me in the Red Room, I just never thought that this could happen. But here we are”

“Can I just say that it is much nicer to have this conversation sat on a bed rather than with you freaking out on a bathroom floor,” Laura added.

“TEAM MEETING!” Tony yelled from downstairs. “EVERYONE DOWNSTAIRS NOW”

“Yeah, that’s not happening,” Natasha muttered.

Obviously, someone else downstairs had the same idea because Tony soon yelled back up into the house again. “TEAM MEETING! EVERYONE UPSTAIRS NOW”

There came the sound of footsteps hurrying up the stairs. Steve was the first to reach the door of Bruce and Natasha’s bedroom. “I’m sorry,” he said, apologising in advance for the number of people that were about to pile into the room. He went into the furthest corner from the door, leaving space for the horde of people following him.

“Wake Oksana up and I will kill you,” Natasha threatened as everyone else piled into the room.

They were somehow able to fit all fifteen people into the room, although Natasha was sure that was mainly down to the fact that four of the people were children.

“So this is going to be a whisper-meeting,” Tony said. “So today’s topic for discussion is what we’re doing about going back to the Compound now?”

“We’re still going, aren’t we?” Lila asked, adhering to the whispering part of the meeting.

“Is this about Cassie?” Scott shot back. The young girl shrugged innocently as if she didn’t know what he was talking about.

“We are still going,” Tony replied. “The question is how and when”

“Everyone goes back at once,” Steve said. “This time around, I think we should stick together. Obviously, the same thing can’t happen this time around, but knowing our luck something bad will happen again”

“Are you calling the birth of my daughter a bad thing?” Natasha jokingly asked.

Steve mocked glared at her. “I meant Bruce almost missing it and getting caught in the middle of a storm at the same time”

“How are we all getting back?” Sam asked. “We can’t all fit in the quinjet with all that stuff”

“I can take everything back and come back for you guys in a few days, same day that Natasha, Anya, Laura and the kids were meant to return anyway,” Tony offered. “Me, Pepper and Peter can unpack everything by then. We’ll do our best to keep Rhodey and Vision from snooping; they both really want to know where you’ve been hiding for the last two years”

“Sounds like a plan,” Steve agreed.

“Then I’d better get going,” Tony said. He started to leave the room, which turned about to be a lot harder than he first thought as he was stood near Steve on the far side of the room and had to try and climb over or around everyone else.

“I feel like I should apologise for him, but at this point I think you’re both just used to him,” Steve said.

Natasha sighed. “We are. Now everyone out before you wake the baby”

***

“WHAT THE HELL TONY?” Rhodey yelled as the quinjet touched down at the Compound. “WHY DID YOU TURN BACK?”

“Nice to see you too,” Tony sarcastically replied as he stepped down the ramp. He smiled warmly at the group waiting to greet him, consisting of Pepper, Peter, Rhodey, Vision and Secretary Ross.

“Colonel Rhodes asks a good question, Mr. Stark, why did you turn back when so close to the Compound and why have you returned alone?” Ross asked. “As much as I hate to admit it, the UN isn’t going back on their decision to repeal the Accords. Captain Rogers and his associates are safe here.” That seemed to be the end of what Ross was saying, but he continued when he saw the looks everyone else was giving him. “And anyone else in connection to the Avengers Initiative, including Banner. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go call the president and let him know that the rest of the Avengers have not arrived back yet”

Everyone watched in awkward silence as Ross walked away from the group, muttering curses as he went.

“Why did you turn back Tony?” Rhodey asked again.

“I can’t say,” Tony explained. He hurried to continue when Rhodey sighed and began to turn away. “Look, there’s a very good reason why I can’t tell you why we had to turn back, but it’s not my reason to tell. But you will find out, just give it a week, then you’ll know”

“Okay,” Rhodey said. “I guess I’ll have to believe you, but it’d better be a good reason.” He started to roll his wheelchair away but called over his shoulder as he left. “Hey Vision, you might want to come with me, let them talk about their reason in private”

Vision looked between Tony and Rhodey, unsure of where he stood in their disagreement. Tony nodded his head slightly and Vision wordlessly went after Rhodey.

Tony reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone and began to swipe through his photos. “I know he was just being overly dramatic, but now that they’re gone, I can show you these”

He turned the phone around to show a picture of the baby to Pepper and Peter. The reaction from the pair was practically simultaneous. Their expressions went soft and Pepper let out a small cooing noise.

“Boy or girl?” Pepper asked. “And what name did they go with?”

“Girl, Oksana Jennifer Banner,” Tony answered. “You can meet her when she arrives here with her parents and everyone else next week.” He looked around at the boxes stacked in the quinjet. “Until then, I may have volunteered us for unpacking duty”

Peter looked around at the sheer number of boxes before shooting a mock glare at Tony. “I hate you”

***

“Hey, how are you doing?” Bruce asked as he walked back through the door. “I brought you lunch”

Natasha grinned at him. “I’m fine, we both are. I’m just sore and tired still. Now give me the food”

Bruce smiled at her. He handed her the food and sat down on the bed next to her, his own lunch in hand. The pair ate in comfortable silence for a few moments before they heard a small cry coming from the bassinet next to the bed. Natasha quickly passed her plate over to Bruce and leant over to pick up Oksana.

“Hey don’t cry,” Natasha soothed. She cradled her daughter in one arm and used the other to lightly stroke her cheek. After a few moments, Oksana stopped crying and gazed up at her mother. After staring at Natasha’s face for a few moments, Oksana began to mimic her slightly, eliciting a laugh from both parents.

“She’s taking after you already,” Bruce teased. Natasha turned slightly to say something to him but was stopped by a small cry from her arms. Bruce let out a mock gasp and leant over to mock whisper to Oksana. “Was Mommy ignoring you? How mean!”

Natasha laughed and elbowed Bruce slightly in the side before turning her attention back to her daughter. She smiled down at the girl in her arms, who’d stopped making noise now she’d gotten Natasha’s attention back to herself. She brought one hand up to lightly brush her cheek. “Hello”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: This is the end of Life On The Farm, but I do have more stories planned out. I'm moving it over to a new title because A) the Avengers aren't at the farm anymore, so this title doesn't work anymore and B) the document is getting so big that Grammarly is being slow
> 
> To everyone that has read this and stuck with it to the very end, thank you so much xx


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